Notes from our May 5th screening

We officially launched our 10th year with a new lineup of films on May 5th.

Going back to our roots as a screening series designed to showcase our own work, the screening began with Botanical Gardens, a new music video by Jay Stern featuring a song by Dale Goodson and M. Sweeney Lawless.  Following this, Victor presented a secret work-in-progress that we're not allowed to write about here.  This is why you should really come to these screenings.

Victor and Jay with Dale Goodson and M. Sweeney Lawless (they're the two in the middle). Photo by Tom Henning.

We began the competition with our iThentic.com selection, King Temp, written by Jason Saenz and Nick Turner and directed by Justin Tyler.  This series tells the story of a man who makes the most out of his temp lifestyle, with helpful tips for you temps out there.


Next was Raymond C. Lai's wonderfully odd green-screen TV pilot At Your Convenience.  At Your Convenience tells the story of two best friends who run a convenience store.  In the pilot, one of them gets caught up in a gang, leading the other to enter the magical world of crack smokers.  It's much funnier and more surprising than this description makes it sound, with really strong performances by the entire cast.


We began our next block of films with another King Temp episode, followed by Ryan Arey and David Valentine's Florida? which tests just how far you can go combining dark and cute in a 2-minute movie.  Ryan directed the film and David designed the puppet.  The three of them (Ryan, David, and the puppet) were at the screening and we spoke to them about their work and puppet-making in general.


The next film in the lineup was Professor Pebbles, Pierce Davidson's claymation film about a devil that can't do evil no matter how hard he tries, and our Australian addition to the evening.  We closed this block with a final King Temp episode.  Director Justin Tyler and producer Vincenzo Picciano were on hand and Jay and Victor interviewed them about this series and their other work.


As always at the Iron Mule, we ended the screening with our "Wanna Be a Star" film, stars an audience member from the previous month's screening with a title suggested by the audience.


Our star this month was Tom Carrozza, who happened to also play a lead role in our first ever "Wanna Be a Star" film that premiered 10 years ago this very month.  So we had an encore screening of that film, Monkey Balls, followed by the new film The Zebra's Refrigerator.  And just like old times, these were Jay and Victor films (Jay directed Monkey Balls and Victor directed The Zebra's Refrigerator.)

Tom Carrozza talks to Jay and Victor. Photo by Tom Henning.

Next it was time to announce the winners of the evening -- the audience favorite award went to Florida? while the judges prize went to At Your Convenience.


Then it was off to our award-winning after party that lasted until the wee hours of the evening.  Join us at our June 2nd Iron Mule screening and experience the magic yourself!