Notes from our July 7th Screening

A happy crowd of New Yorkers braved the July heat to pack 92YTribeca’s air-conditioned screening room on July 7th.  The show began with the standard recap of what was going on in Jay and Victor’s lives.  Victor has two web series online right now: The Realm of Larp, and Funny Cause it’s True.  Jay is finishing up tow features with the promise of a trailer for one of them at next month’s show.

Joining Jay and Victor was guest judge Ben Roesch, a film fan who Jay described as “a foremost Iron Mule expert.”  Ben has been coming to Iron Mule screenings since 2007 and has probably soon more short comedy films than your average person.  Who better to judge than him?

Victor and Jay welcome Ben Roesch
(photo by Tom Henning)

The first film of the night came courtesy of our partner organization, iThentic.com.  We screened an episode of their series Husbands, which tells the story of the aftermath of two gay celebrities’ accidental marriage in Las Vegas.

Our first block of films in competition included Dave Green’s Ham Sandwich, a story of a man who discovers a magical sandwich that sends him back in time with potentially disastrous consequences.  Next was a short from UK animator Felix Massie, Keith Reynolds Can’t Make it Tonight.  This film is sort of a stick-figure Mad Men gone deadly.

Felix wasn’t at the screening, so instead Jay and Victor interviewed 92YTribeca intern Paolo Avenati as if he was Felix.  They didn’t learn much, but they had fun.

Victor and Jay interview Paolo -- um, Felix.
(photo by Tom Henning)

The next film in the lineup was Paolo Sasseneli’s Uerra.  Paolo is a famous TV and film actor in Italy, and this was his first short.  Beautifully shot (in 35mm! remember that?), Uerra is a period film that tells the story of a group of people living in an apartment building struggling with the aftermath of the Second World War.  And it’s a comedy.  Paolo couldn’t make it to New York, but he sent a representative, his friend and fellow actor Laura Caparrotti, who was on hand to talk about Paolo and his work and Italian shorts in general.  Laura explained that the film was shot in a very thick Italian dialect that few people outside of the region can understand.  (Naturally, our audience couldn’t understand it either, but that’s why there were English subtitles).

Victor and Jay with Laura Caparrotti
(photo by Tom Henning)

Two more films were up next:  Chris Capel’s commercial spoof Naptime! in which we learned about a product that will silence even the most annoying of children, and First Mate, from brother filmmaking team, Conor and Tyler Byrne.  Conor and Tyler were at the show to talk about their movie and what it’s like to makes movies with your brother (apparently there’s punching involved).

with the brothers Byrne
(photo by Tom Henning)

Our last film in competition was Stephen Neary’s Doctor Breakfast.  We’ve shown some other films by Stephen at past Iron Mules, but this one is really something special.  It’s about a guy whose soul escapes and starts eating things and then some deer show up and try to console the guy, and, well, it’s going to make absolutely no sense unless you watch it.  So take a look.

Then, while our vote counters were tabulating the audience votes and our secret cabal was tabulating the judges’ votes, we premiered out latest installment in the monthly “Wanna be a Star” series, Zombie Barbeque.  The film starred Aaron Rudelson, who was randomly chosen at the June screening to star in his very own film.  It was written by Ryan Guiterman and directed by Jovon Outlaw, and starred Aaron as a Zombie having trouble getting people to attend his barbeque.  Aaron happens to be an actor, so his performance (done entirely in zombie language with English subtitles) was quite convincing.

Then it was time to announce the winners, and the audience favorite went to First Mate and the judges award went to Keith Reynolds Can’t Make it Tonight.  But everyone was a winner as we moved on to the after party where drinks were had,  jokes were cracked, and mingling was done until it was late and people went back to their (hopefully air-conditioned) homes.

Join us at 92YTribeca on August 4th for our next screening!

Notes From Our February 5th Screening

Despite the frigid rainy ickiness outside, it was "On with the show!" inside the 92Y Tribeca last Saturday, as a packed house piled in for another great night of short comedy films with Iron Mule.

Jay Stern and Victor Varnado - photo by Tom Henning

We started off the night with a sneak peak at prolific host Victor Varnado's latest comedy concert film, "Tell Your Friends," which will hopefully be coming to a theater or cable channel near you soon.  Then Victor and host Jay Stern introduced our guest judge for the evening, Michael Galinsky.  Mike shared the trailer for his latest documentary, "Battle of Brooklyn," a 7-years-in-the-making document of the controversial Atlantic Yards project.  It wasn't very funny, but fortunately Mike was, so he was allowed to stay.

Those documentary chops came in handy as many of the night's films were also documentaries, both of the traditional and the mocking variety.  The first block of films began with an installment of Steve Delahoyde's Regrets series, "Hobbies," in which a beleaguered birdwatcher explains how his addiction to novelty pastimes has yet to give his life meaning.  Next month, we'll have another in the same hilarious series, titled "Kid."  Then came Michael DeMirjian's "Sounds of Summer Camp," a kind of music video culled from hundreds of hours of NFL summer training footage.  Michael talked with Jay & Victor about his time as an editor for Fox Sports and how he made cutting football and NASCAR footage fun.

Michael DeMirjian with Victor and Jay - photo by Tom Henning

Our next block started with "Just About Famous," a documentary about celebrity impersonators by Nick Kovacsev and Matt Mamula, who's previous film, "Potato Sac," was an award-winner in 2003.  Finishing up the block was Nat Towsen's "Coke Bottle Blues."  Nat, sharply dressed for the occasion, was on hand to discuss his monthly variety show, The Moon, which the film was made for, and why it's nice to wear a blazer when you've made a film about drinking a coke and burping.

Nat Towsen with Victor and Jay - photo by Tom Henning

Next, we welcomed back another Iron Mule alumnus, Kyle Gilman, who returned with the sequel to his 2005 award-winner, "Two Night Stand," which has about a gazillion hits on YouTube.  The latest film, "Two Night Stand Two," follows the same two characters who, after 6 years, have started mysteriously waking up in bed together again.  Jay & Victor spoke to Kyle about his work as Hal Hartley's editor, and the history of his own films, many of which have shown at Iron Mule over the years.

speaking with Kyle Gilman - photo by Tom Henning

For our final film in competition, we welcomed back last month's double award-winner Stephen Neary, with his Valentine's-Day-friendly music video, "Let's Make Out."  Stephen told the audience about making the film in his spare time at work and his next animated project, "Dr. Breakfast."

Stephen Neary - photo by Tom Henning

As the audience's votes were tallied for their favorite film, we unveiled the latest in Iron Mule's audience participation series, the Wanna Be A Star? competition.  Each month, we ask the audience to shout out a title, and then draw an audience member's name to star in a film with that title made for the next month's show.  This month's film was, "Bacon," directed by Lin Sorensen, and the audience winner and star was Morgan English, who was not only featured in the Ken-Burns-style documentary as the Narrator but also edited the film as well!  Morgan also drew the name of next month's star: Janet Kalish; she'll be starring in "Year of the Rabbit," to be directed by host Jay Stern.

with Morgan English and Lin Sorensen - photo by Tom Henning

When all the votes were in, Guest Judge Galinsky announced the winners: for the Audience Award, Steve Delahoyde's "Regrets: Hobbies," and for the Judge's Award, Mike DeMirjian's "Sounds of Summer Camp"!  Congrats, Steve and Mike, and we look forward to seeing more of their films in the future.

Guest Judge Michael Galinsky announces the winners - photo by Tom Henning

Join us next month, for the next Regrets film, "Kid," new animation from Laurie Rosenwald featuring excerpts from David Sedaris' diary, and the premiere of "Year of the Rabbit"!

Iron Mule producer Lin Sorensen at the after party

Notes from our January 8th screening

It was a blustery January evening outside, but in the 92YTribeca screening room on January 8th the audience was warming up with the expectation of a night of short comedy films.  Jay got the show off to a start by describing a frustrating start to his year; someone stole his credit card number online and used it to buy 2010's straight-to-DVD Lost Boys: The Thirst.  The thief wasn't very clever because he mailed the DVD to Jay's billing address and Jay was able to get a new credit card before any significant damage was done.  So the story has a happy ending.  Just as long as Jay doesn't actually watch the movie.

Victor then told a story about the start of his year, but we'll spare our readers by not recounting it here.  Really.  It's pretty gruesome.

Jay and Victor then welcomed special guest judge, illustrator, author, and animator Laurie Rosenwald. Laurie is a long-time Iron Mule contributor and she started off the night by showing two animations she made in collaboration with David Sedaris.  We'll be showing more of that series at our March 5th show.

Jay, Victor, and Laurie Rosenwald

Then it was time for the films in competition.  First up was Sylvia Apostol's animated film about a boy who gets revenge on the tooth fairy in A Faery's Tale, followed by comedian Joe DeRosa's short made for atom.com, The Jesus Fix, a film about a man who has nothing to complain about compared to Jesus.  Joe was at the show and had a brief interview about translating his stand up material to the screen before having to leave to go do stand up elsewhere.

Jay, Victor, and Joe DeRosa

Joe DeRosa waves goodbye to Jay and Victor as he leaves the screening to perform standup somewhere.

The next film in competition was the longest film of the evening, Adam Hall's musical extravaganza Sudden Death, about about a plague gripping Los Angeles in which people infected burst spontaneously into song and dance before dying.  Two dashing researchers struggle to find a cure while falling in love and incessantly singing about it all.  The film features John Larroquette in the pivotal role of a sort of Deep Throat of the Coast Guard.

Then it was on to our last block of films in competition.  First up was Eric Knobel's "I-can't-believe-I-saw-that" movie Root Beer.  One of the great pleasures of the evening was the moment when the audience broke into a fit of laughter at a certain point of this movie that built and didn't stop until it was over.  Who would be brave enough to follow this movie?  None other than our Romanian friend Mirel Bran with his one-minute film Hitchcock Reloaded (in French rather than Romanian this time).  The final film of the block was Stephen Neary's Cowboy Chicken, an animated tour-de-force about a chicken in the wild West who just wants to be a chicken but is forced against his will to become a hero.  We interviewed Stephen about how he made the movie, breaking the code of animators by appearing in your own movie, animation in general, and his other work.  Stephen will be back next month with another movie called Let's Make Out.

Stephen Neary, the creator of Cowboy Chicken

Victor, Jay and Stephen Neary

Before closing out the night, we welcomed old Iron Mule friend and film distributor Ray Privett, who showed a trailer of his upcoming movie Zenith, which opens on January 19th in NYC and then will screen across the US followed by a release on DVD and VOD.  We're not sure what Zenith is about (even after seeing the trailer), but it certainly looks good, and we were intrigued by Ray demanding that we view it as a comedy.  Make sure to watch for this movie at a theater near you!

Victor, Jay, and Ray Privett

Last up was our monthly "Wanna be a Star" movie in which we randomly select a member of the audience to star in a movie that is then shown at the following month's show.  Back in December, Amy Wolf was chosen to star in the movie Under the Robe.  This pitch-perfect movie about way too many audition experiences was written by Lin Sorensen and directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Galluci.  Giuseppe's English wasn't great, but that just made him a more charming interview subject following the world premiere of his movie.

Giuseppe Galluci

Then it was time for guest judge Laurie Rosenwald to announce the winners.  Both the judges' and audience's awards went to Cowboy Chicken!  And the prize was none other than Jay's copy of Lost Boys: The Thirst!

Jay (holding the prize of Lost Boys: The Thirst) and Victor

Then on to the after party in the 92YTribeca cafe and the secret after after party where more food and drink was had by all.  We have another great month planned for February and look forward to seeing fans old and new then.