Film #9 in Rob Nilsson's epic Tenderloin film cycle 9 @ Night. The sinking fortunes of an Oakland art cinema mirrors a shaky marriage. Michelle wants to program high minded films while her co-owner husband prefers "vintage porn" promoted by St. Tre, owner of a strip club and escort service. St. Tre's boy friend Ben Malafide, a recent inmate, begins to think life in prison is preferable to the "freedoms" of polite society. Bills pile up, homeless people begin to camp outside the theatre and, oddest of all, the theatre itself begins to speak.

9 interconnected feature films, spun from the world of the Tenderloin and featuring TL denizens inhabiting their characters and improvising the scripts, are framed by the poetic vision and prolific practice of iconoclast director Rob Nilsson. His ambitious 9 @ Night cycle achieves an deep exploration of the human condition and stands as a rich chronicle of the Tenderloin–the physical place, its people, their existential struggles, sorrows and joys.

Independently produced, the series is an epic feat of cinema in terms of both craft & concept. 9 @ Night is the fruit of Nilsson’s nearly 2-decade collaboration with the Tenderloin yGroup, an acting workshop embedded in the neighborhood and operating with Nilsson’s creative method of “Direct Action,” which he describes as “a cinema of the moment which lives off the land to discover the relationship between what we think we want and what is actually there.” The films and the process that created them (as well as their life after completion) are a tremendous synthesis of art-making, community, and the culture of the Tenderloin both real and imagined.

The Tenderloin Museum is proud to present the 9 @ Night series in its entirety, screened salon-style with Nilsson (and guests) in-person, offering a rare opportunity to see the complete film cycle in “the land” where it was forged. For lovers of San Francisco on-screen, gritty filmic realism, character driven dramas, consider 9 @ Night an essential opus in the canon of Tenderloin-alia!

GO TOGETHER is the ninth film in the 9 @ Night cycle. While completists will be rewarded with narrative and visual resonance across the films, each movie can be enjoyed independently. Read more about the series here, and visit RobNilssonArtForms.com to explore the filmmakers full oeuvre.

Contact the host of GO TOGETHER - Film 9 of Rob Nilsson's "9 @ Night"