Nico­las Wind­ing Refn launch­es new stream­ing plat­form byN​WR​.com

Self described as a ​“cul­tur­al express­way for the arts”, byN​WR​.com is a new web­site from the direc­tor behind Dri­ve and The Neon Demon whose sole pur­pose is to spread the love when it comes to movies. For the prince­ly sum of zero dol­lars / pounds, this site will show­case a range of movies from around the globe, all new­ly restored and many plucked from Refn’s pri­vate collection.

And if that wasn’t enough, each quar­ter will be guest curat­ed by a hand-picked cul­tur­al part­ner. Vol­ume 1, enti­tled ​‘Region­al Rene­gades: exploita­tion gems from the South­ern US’ arrives care of the author and jour­nal­ist Jim­my McDo­nough. He will be pro­vid­ing vital con­text and off-shoot edi­to­r­i­al around titles such as Bert Williams’ 1965 film Nest of the Cuck­oo Birds, about S&M moon­shin­ers, 1967’s Shan­ty Tramp, and Dale Barry’s Hot Thrills and Warm Chills from the same year.

Lit­tle White Lies will be also be on hand to present a quar­ter, focus­ing on ​‘Restored and redis­cov­ered clas­sics of inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma’. Things kick off with one of the all-time great mer­maid movies, Night Tide, from 1963. Then there’s the ultra rare, Ohio-set mas­ter­work, Spring Night, Sum­mer Night, by Joseph L Ander­son. And final­ly, there’s a cel­e­bra­tion of Chris­t­ian ​“scare” films asso­ci­at­ed with south­ern fire­brand preach­er Rev Estus W Pirkle – If Foot­men Tire You, What Would Hors­es Do? and The Burn­ing Hell.

These films will be avail­able to view on the site, but will also crop up for spe­cial screen­ings at venues around the globe. Refn has been work­ing along­side Lon­don-based agency The Bureau to build this project, with MUBI draft­ed in to assist with the stream­ing ser­vices, Har­vard Film Archive on board for restora­tion, and Milan Records for music and sound­tracks side-projects.

byN​WR​.com is set to launch in Feb­ru­ary 2018.