“byNWR: it comes with a mystery attached.” Nicolas Winding Refn
One of the coolest people I’ve met whilst doing this job is Nicolas Winding Refn. I interviewed him on the press trail for his Cannes Marmite movie The Neon Demon and he was very open and frank about the film business and his part within it. I was pleased to learn that this week his FREE streaming/culture service byNWR.com has officially launched.
Born from Nicolas Winding Refn’s passion for the rare, the strange, and the crazed, byNWR.com is an ever-expanding world of original creative content, all of which is free.
Carefully curated by a special guest editor specifically chosen by Refn, the quarterly volumes are divided into three monthly chapters, each featuring a meticulously restored film. The movie itself is just a touchstone, however, a talisman used to inspire a wealth of personally created new material, whether it be articles, biographies, essays, or original music, video and photography, all of it accompanied by a wealth of previously unseen cultural artefacts connected to the film itself.
For the opening volume, Refn invited acclaimed biographer and journalist Jimmy McDonough to be our first guest editor for Regional Renegades, byNWR Volume I. Called “a literary Terminator” by The Times, he is the author of critically acclaimed biographies on Neil Young, Tammy Wynette, Russ Meyer, and others. “Essential…wildly entertaining,” said the Wall Street Journal of Soul Survivor, McDonough’s controversial recent book on Al Green. The Ghastly One, his biography of infamous director Andy Milligan, was dubbed “a masterpiece” by Time magazine and John Waters has repeatedly named it as one of his all-time favorite books.
Regional Renegades first highlights the indescribable 1965 Bert Williams epic THE NEST OF THE CUCKOO BIRDS, a previously lost low-budget gothic melodrama from the Florida Everglades. Next comes the unhinged camp of Texas director Dale Berry, HOT THRILLS AND WARM CHILLS (1967), and last is Jose (AKA Joseph) Pietro’s notorious tale of interracial backwoods lust, SHANTY TRAMP (also 1967).
Missing Links, byNWR’s second volume, will arrive in September and is guest-edited by Refn favorite Little White Lies, the U.K. film magazine renowned for its independent ethos and cutting-edge journalism.
byNWR will reveal guest editors for upcoming volumes in the near future and will be expanding into other markets, with the French edition to be unveiled in 2019.
Check it out here.
