Notes from our November 5th Screening

Iron Mule was back in action on November 5th, with a new lineup of films.

The audience awaits the show!

The show began with a brief update of what hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado have been up to (Jay is busy editing his feature film, and Victor wrote for a comic book that just came out), which was followed by an interview with the night's guest judge, comedy writer Gary Apple.  Gary mentioned that he was mostly looking for quality in the night's lineup of films and Jay and Victor promised to deliver.

Victor and Jay

First up, from Canada, was Naomi Ward's movie The Wedding Gift -- a story of the lengths a man will go to in order to get out of an engagement.  This was followed by the Robin Reed / Will Shepard film Mommy Wars: Battle for the Playground.  Robin, who also starred in the film, was on hand to discuss her inspiration for the film (a nasty run-in with Brooklyn mommies at a restaurant she worked at).

The next block of films began with Bertie Peek and Fergus Dingle's (yes -- those are their real names -- they're British) CIA, one in a series of three shorts involving ice cream.  Following this was Nelson Cheng and Kate VanDevender's Will & Fiona, about a man who thinks he's just having dinner with a colleague, only to discover that he's on a date.  Nelson, who also co-starred in the movie, was in town from LA, and discussed how he came up with the project and also talked about his current work as a documentary filmmaker.  You can read his version of the evening's events here.

Victor and Jay with Nelson Cheng

Our third block of films was Bertie Peek and Fergus Dingle's Standoff, followed by our old friend Kevin Maher's Andrew 12-Sided Dice Clay.  Kevin was on hand to discuss his work, and promote his Kickstarter campaign, in which he's hoping to raise money to turn this short into a web series.  Take a look at his film and donate a few bucks!  This is the kind of series that no corporate entity will back, but the world needs to see it come to life!

Victor and Jay with Kevin Maher

Our final film of the evening was Frederick Soligan's The Girl Across the Hall, a charming movie about a stalker that relies purely on visuals to tell its story.  Fred (we call him Fred) has just moved to NYC from Boston and was at the show to discuss his movie and plead for editing work (anyone out there hiring?).

Fred Soligan: hire him!

The final film of the evening was our "Wanna Be a Star" film Lemon Tart, written and directed by Melinda Prom and starring lucky audience member Ben Roesch.  It was Melinda's first film (she's normally a theater director) and also Ben's first role on camera.  They clearly had a lot of fun, and, for the record, Ben looks really great in a hat.

Then Gary Apple came back to the stage and announced the audience winner and judges' pick.  It was a tough decision, but The Girl Across the Hall took home both awards.

Following the show, the filmmakers and audience went to the 92YTribeca cafe for the after party, that closed the venue and continued off in another Tribeca location until the wee hours.

Thanks to all who made it out, and we hope to see you back at 92YTri in December!