FiLM FESTiVALS & COVERAGE OF EVENTS

Hell On Frisco Bay
FAVORITE REP HOUSE SCREENINGS OF 2010

By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, January 22, 2011     GO TO ARTICLE
Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal favorite Re House screenings of 2010 in the Bay Area.

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2010
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, October 19, 2010     GO TO ARTICLE
In his third report from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE WOODY ALLEN FILMS OF THE Y2Ks
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, September 27, 2010     GO TO ARTICLE
In his third report from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.

youtube.com
INTERVIEW WITH an 8 month pregnant DIABLO CODY
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks & Larissa Mills, June 11, 2010   WATCH FILM


SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2010 PT. 3
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, February 24, 2010     GO TO ARTICLE
In his third report from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best DOCUMENTARIES of the fest.

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2010 PT. 2
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, February 23, 2010     GO TO ARTICLE
In his second report from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2010 PT. 1
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, Feburary 22, 2010     GO TO ARTICLE
In his first report from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.

Hell On Frisco Bay
FAVORITE REP HOUSE SCREENINGS OF 2009
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, Feburary 10, 2010     GO TO ARTICLE
Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal favorite Re House screenings of 2009 in the Bay Area.

SF Bay Guardian
INTERVIEW WITH KELLY REICHARDT (FOR WENDY & LUCY)
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, January 28, 2009     GO TO ARTICLE
In his third report from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.

San Francisco Chronicle
MIDNITES FOR MANiACs: "great bad movies"
By G. Allen Johnson, October 09, 2008 GO TO ARTICLE
It started out as an all-night slumber party - with free cereal served at 5am - called "Midnites For Maniacs." It was where bad movies went to be loved, and it soon became a big-crowd staple at the Castro Theatre. Except that founder and programmer Jesse Hawthorne Ficks almost doesn't believe in bad films.

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF THE TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2008
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, September 10, 2008     GO TO ARTICLE
In his first report from the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.


About.com San Francisco

THE CASTRO'S MIDNITES FOR MANiACS
August 06, 2008 GO TO ARTICLE
There's a fine line between the popular "bad movie" nights you'll see in any town, where old films are the butt of verbal tomatoes . . . and the more subtle showcases like Midnites for Maniacs, where an old film is dusted off and genuinely appreciated for its warts.

SF360 Magazine
Movie Scene, Episode 14 Part 3:
A Genuine Tribute to Peter Bogdanovich

March 10, 2008     WATCH
SF360 Movie Scene, a presentation of the San Francisco Film Society and ComcastSF, is the only television show devoted to showcasing the San Francisco Bay Area independent film, film festival and art-house film scene. In this clip, hosts Rod Armstrong, of the Film Society, and Cheryl Eddy, of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, discuss with Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, Programmer at the Castro Theater, about the upcoming " Midnites for Maniacs" remembering Peter Bogdanovich's classics.

SF360 Magazine
Movie Scene, Episode 13 Part 3
Quick Sundance review

February 28, 2008     WATCH FILM
SF360 Movie Scene, a presentation of the San Francisco Film Society and ComcastSF, is the only television show devoted to showcasing the San Francisco Bay Area independent film, film festival and art-house film scene. In this clip, hosts Rod Armstrong, of the Film Society, and Cheryl Eddy, of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, talk with journalist Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, back from the Sundance Film Festival.

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2008
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, January 25, 2008     GO TO ARTICLE
In his third report from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.


SF360.com
FAVORITE UNDERRATED FILM OF 2007
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, December 27, 2007 GO TO ARTICLE
Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his favorite underrated film of 2007.

SF360.com
Monday: Platform / Jesse Hawthorne Ficks on his midnight movie empire
By Dennis Harvey, December 3, 2007    GO TO ARTICLE
Jesse Hawthorne Ficks is the founder, curator and host of Midnites for Maniacs, a frequent one-night event on the historic Castro Theatre's calendar these days. "Emphasizing dismissed, overlooked and forgotten films," MfM might be said to focus on the populist yet esoteric-genre and exploitation flicks that for the most part long since disappeared into the netherworld of discarded VHS rental tapes ..

Twitch
2007 SFIAAFF—Jesse Hawthorne Ficks INTRODUCTION for Big Trouble In Little China
By Michael Guillen, March 21, 2007    GO TO ARTICLE
It's truly heartwarming to see how much Jesse Hawthorne Ficks is beloved by his MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS fans and—more interestingly—how he cheerleads their adoration. The man knows how to work a crowd. Co-presenting John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China (1986) with SFIAAFF will undoubtedly win him some new converts.

SF Bay Guardian
Midnight Specialists: Midnites For Maniacs, The king of midnight movies in SF: Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
By Cheryl Eddy, July 4, 2007 GO TO ARTICLE  
Ask Jesse Hawthorne Ficks what his favorite movie is, and he won't hesitate: it's Ski School. Ficks, who programs and hosts the Castro Theatre's monthly Midnites for Maniacs triple feature, interprets "favorite" literally: the 1991 raunch-com might not surface on any highbrow top-10 lists, but it's likely no scholar loves Citizen Kane (1941) as much as Ficks loves Ski School ...

SF Bay Guardian
FAVORITE FILMS OF THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2007
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, January 31, 2007     GO TO ARTICLE
In his first report from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his personal best of the fest.

New York Noise
Sweating at the Pitchfork Music Festival 2006
November 13, 2006     WATCH
Peggy Wang interviews Pitchfork fest-goers (including Mr. Ficks) for Network TV's New York Noise. Shot / Edited by Shirley Bra

SF Bay Guardian
MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF 2006
By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, August 29, 2006     GO TO ARTICLE
Midnites for Maniacs programmer and Guardian contributor Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reflects on his most aniticpated upcoming films of 2006.

SF360 Magazine
Monday: Platform /
Jesse Ficks remodels the "midnight" movie

By Max Goldberg, Jun 5, 2006    GO TO ARTICLE
The Bay Area has a long history of creative film programming. Although the rep-house/film society circuit probably isn't what it was in the days when Pauline Kael got her start programming Berkeley's defunct Fine Arts Cinema, there are still plenty of fiery aficionados trying to get you to the theater for a little taste of the unusual, forgotten, and sublime. One such film-freak is Jesse Hawthorne Ficks whose all-out "Midnites for Maniacs" bills have aired out curiosities from the '80s and '90s to adoring crowds at the Castro Theatre. Despite being abroad for Cannes, Ficks took the time to consider the enduring appeal of midnight movies over email ...

The Evening Class
PROGRAMMER PROFILE—Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
By Michael Guillen, June 04, 2006    GO TO ARTICLE
The Bay Area has a long history of creative film programming. Although the rep-house/film society circuit probably isn't what it was in the days when Pauline Kael got her start programming Berkeley's defunct Fine Arts Cinema, there are still plenty of fiery aficionados trying to get you to the theater for a little taste of the unusual, forgotten, and sublime. One such film-freak is Jesse Hawthorne Ficks whose all-out "Midnites for Maniacs" bills have aired out curiosities from the '80s and '90s to adoring crowds at the Castro Theatre. Despite being abroad for Cannes, Ficks took the time to consider the enduring appeal of midnight movies over email ...

SF Weekly
After Midnight
By JOYCE SLATON, May 26, 2004    GO TO ARTICLE
In my family we call it the "$9 nap": Because I'm a morning person, I fall asleep in any movie that starts after 7 p.m. No matter how gripping the plot, no matter how hard I try to stay awake, 9 at night finds me snoring in my stadium-style chair. It's usually not a problem -- even racy current releases have matinee showings, after all -- but a late-night movie series as cool as "Midnites for Maniacs" makes me wish things were different. Now in its third year and still curated by quirky trash-flick enthusiast Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, the series presents picks that range far beyond typical midnight-movie fare. Even Ficks' most boilerplate selection, the kicky 1979 Ramones vehicle Rock 'n' Roll High School (which also stars teen-flick queen P.J. Soles and Eating Raoul's Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel), is a cult film so obscure that it's only been shown locally a handful of times over the last two decades ...

contact jesse hawthorne ficks at: MIDNITES4MANIACS@gmail.com


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