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 4th screening

It was a full house at 92YTribeca on February 4th for a special romance-themed Iron Mule.  Guest judge romance novelist Hope Tarr joined us and spoke a bit about her work and about romance in general.  Romance, Hope said, means that there must be a happy ending, which generally fits for comedies.

Guest judge Hope Tarr with Jay and Victor
photo by Tom Henning

First in the lineup was our iThentic.com film, The Rules of the Game, written by Sam Michell and directed by Tom Daley.  Hope liked it because it had a "hot English guy" as the lead, although the happiness of the ending is questionable.  You can judge for yourself by watching it here.

Next was Love, our Canadian entry for the evening, written and directed by Kaveh Nabatian.  This movie is difficult to describe without ruining it, but simply put it's a very whimsical and oddly told odd story about a couple that have a one-night stand and end up with a family in the most unexpected of ways.

Next was Oh Baby, I Love You! by Mary Angelica Molina, which tells the story of a woman who has a sexual quirk that threatens to destroy a relationship she cares about before it gets started.  This lovely-looking film had some great comic performances and a nice twist at the ending.

Speaking of twists, next was a film from Australia, Rupert Le Poer Trench's Appy Ever After, which is about a husband trying to sneak a night out with the boys with the aid of a smartphone app.  This movie actually had two twists at the end, and we won't spoil them for you here.

Next in our lineup was Karen Hope's Buon Giorno Sayonara, about an Italian tourist and a Japanese tourist who meet up on the English seashore after having had arguments with their respective others.  They have a romantic afternoon together, although they don't speak the same language.  This movie was quite charming and made do without much dialogue, and no subtitles for the little Japanese and Italian the characters spoke.

Our final film was from an old friend of Iron Mule, Alan McIntryre Smith, a music video called Espresso Nirvana.  Alan, who also shot and edited the film, had shot concerts of composer and classical pianist Gregg Kallor, and when Gregg asked for a promotional video for his new album, Alan proposed going all out and making a music video.  Alan was at the screening and we spoke about how he developed the movie with Gregg.  As you might imagine, there aren't many classical music videos, but after seeing Espresso Nirvana we really hope the trend takes off.

with Alan McIntyre Smith
photo by Tom Henning

This was it for the films in competition, but before we showed our "Wanna be a Star" movie, co-host Victor Varnado had a movie of his to show.  The newly-completed The Trouble with Charlie was made as part of a Comedy Central competition and was the pilot of a potential series about an unregistered puppet trying to find love and friendship in a hostile world.  Also Charlie's a bit of a jerk, but that's beside the point.

Then the audience cast their votes for their favorite films, and while the votes were being tallied, we showed the world premiere of I'm the Rudest Person in the World.  As always for our "Wanna be a Star" films, the title was suggested by the audience at the previous month's show, and the star, Kerry McGuire, was randomly picked from the audience.  As luck would have it, Kerry is a writer, and in an Iron Mule first, she wrote the movie for her to star in.  Adam Sacks directed.

with Adam Sacks and Kerry McGuire
photo by Tom Henning

After the film it was time for the awards, and Hope Tarr joined us for the announcement.  The audience award went to Oh Baby, I Love You! and the judges' award was a very rare tie between Buon Giorno Sayonara and Love.

Hope Tarr announces the winners
photo by Tom Henning

Then it was off to the after party for drinks, mingling, and for some of us, a late night snack in SoHo.

At the after party, where everything is better in black and white.
photo by Tom Henning

Thanks for reading, and make sure to join us at our March 3rd screening!

Notes from our October 1st Screening

The Iron Mule was excited to be back after a month hiatus with a slew of short comedy films from across the English-speaking world.

Here's our happy audience filing in before the show.  We don't have the photographic evidence, but we can assure you that they were even happier after the show.

Jay and Victor began by filling in the audience about what they've been up to.

Jay and Victor fill the audience in about what they've been up to. 

Victor has a comic book he wrote for Marvel coming out in November and promises to bring a copy for us to look at at the November 5th show.  Jay is in the throes of editing his romantic musical comedy feature film The Adventures of Paul and Marian and showed another clip from the film.  If you weren't there, you weren't lucky enough to see this top-secret Iron-Mule-exclusive clip, but here's a tantalizing still.

Next, Victor and Jay introduced special guest judge Nick Nadel.  Nick is a writer, blogger, and raconteur who has been coming to Iron Mule screenings since before the invention of YouTube.  Remember those days when you couldn't just watch short films on the internet?  Nick talked about how much he prizes storytelling, and about how really good storytelling unfortunately isn't a given in short comedy films.  He was looking forward to seeing how our filmmakers would fare under his watchful eye.

Speaking with Nick Nadel

And then it was on to the films.  First up was a movie from Australia: Iron Mule alum William Crook's Night Shift of the Vampire, which details a particularly annoying night shift at a convenience store as seen through the eyes of the vampire who works there.  We followed that up with a new film from also-returning New York team Alexandra Eitel and Dan Simon, Alison's Problem with Women.  This movie tells the story about a woman who just can't connect with women and would rather hang out with the guys.  We interviewed Alexandra and Dan about their working relationship (she wrote and acted, he directed) and Victor noted how effectively Dan was able to simulate locations they couldn't afford to shoot in through smart and subtle sound design.

with Alexandra Eitel and Dan Simon

After the interview we checked in with Nick Nadel, who mentioned that while he enjoyed both films, he doesn't really like a movie which doesn't show the actual interior of a Forever 21.  Victor also mentioned that he discovered he is allergic to pears.  He ate one before the show, and his throat was starting to close up.

Next up were two more films.  First, from the UK, Scott Imren and Grant Fulton's delightfully silly and tense film Maltempi, about a amazingly poorly run product recall by a toy company.  It begins with a character shouting "lick the monkey!" and, not to spoil it, delivers on the promise.  Then we screened Elliot Lobel's Andrew: The Story of a Closet Monster, a touching story of a boy and his relationship with the not-very-scary monster in his closet.  This film was made with stop motion animation, and Jay and Victor spoke with Elliot about how he made this film, which took seven months to shoot.

with Elliot Lobel

Before introducing the next films, Victor noted that he was feeling considerably worse and in addition to his throat closing up, was now lightheaded.  So a good Samaritan in the audience unexpectedly threw a packet of Benadryl at him, luckily missing his head.  Victor thanked the audience member and complemented her on her arm.

Next up were our last two films in competition.  First was Domestic, another Australian film, written by Brett Snelgrove and directed by Katie Hide.  This film documents an argument between a couple that turns into a martial-arts battle between the sexes.  It drew as many gasps from the audiences as laughs, who were delighted by its combination of humor and brutality.  And rounding out the evening was David B. Levy's incredibly inventive and strikingly personal film Grandpa Looked Like William Powell.  David told the story of his relationship with his grandfather, who he hardly knew, through animated drawings superimposed over his grandfather's high school autograph book.

Jay and a now-recovered Victor (thank you Benadryl!) interviewed David about his process for making the film, and we were all surprised to hear it was shot on an iphone.  Ah, technology, how wondrous you are.

Then, while audience and judges votes were being tabulated, we premiered this month's "Wanna Be a Star" movie Garbage Dump, directed by Ryan Guitarman and starring Iron Mule audience member Ally Cunningham.  In true "Wanna Be a Star" fashion, the movie was completed at 4:00pm on the day of the show.  But last minute or not, the film didn't disappoint, with some of the finest sock puppet acting you're liable to see on the big screen.

We then chose next month's star from the audience, and the prize went to long-time fan Ben Roesch!  He'll be starring in Lemon Tart to be made by a director TBD (although one of the programmers was seen plying a certain theater director with glasses of wine at the after party so we suspect we'll have one in place really soon).

Then it was time for awards.  Although it was really tough to choose a favorite, when votes were tallied Andrew: Story of a Closet Monster won both audience and judge's prizes.  Great job Elliot, and thanks to him and the other filmmakers who contributed to such a great lineup.