Daily Show Writer Elliott Kalan to Guest Judge May 1st Screening

We are thrilled to have Elliott Kalan join us at the May 1st Iron Mule screening!

Elliott Kalan is an Emmy-winning writer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" as well as co-host of the bad movie podcast "The Flophouse".  He hosts the monthly series "Closely Watched Films" at 92YTribeca.  In previous lives he performed as one-half of the sketch comedy duo The Hypocrites, and was a weekly columnist for the free newspaper "Metro".

Movies We Like: Funny Women

Very often when we watch submissions, we find ourselves wondering if the filmmakers (almost always male) have ever met a live female human being.  The roles for women in short comedy are often either non-existent, insulting, or not very interesting, while the male parts get all the laughs.  See this blog post for a short essay on this subject.

We'd like to take a moment here to post some films we like, by both male and female filmmakers, that feature strong, funny lead roles for women.  It's not that hard a thing to do, but surprisingly few people out there making short comedy films seem to bother.

TURKEY SHOOT Ramona Floyd (who actually knows how to shoot) was randomly chosen from our audience to star in this movie.  We had such a fun time with Ramona that we made her a producer of our festival! WHY ULA LA IS SO GOSH DARN CUTE A movie by Nic Holland in which the woman gets to be the funny one while the guy is the straight man. HOW TO BE POPULAR An amazing film by John Dilley that chronicles the experiences of popular girls in high school.  Done with honesty and heart.  Unfortunately only the trailer is online.  Here it is: BACK TO THE FUSCIA The woman drives the action in Toby Robert's poetic comedy from the UK. YULIA Antonine Arditti's story about true love and travel to another dimension. YELLOWTAIL Artist and animator Laurie Rosenwald usually features herself in her work, so we're not sure if it exactly applies here, but we like her work so much we're including it anyway. JUST TALK Eliza Skinner's charming movie about dating shows that nice women and crazy women can both make for good roles in a short comedy film. MONKEY PANCAKES Victor Varnado's movie about a woman and a monkey. Lastly, we can't list strong roles for women without mentioning Signe Bamane's work.  This Latvian animator has made many wonderful short films with women protagonists.  You can see some of them on her website, and find out more about the Teat Beat of Sex series here.

Notes from our April 3rd Screening - 8th Anniversary!

We remember being eight years old; it's a great age.  You can pick out your own clothes, you can sort of read a menu, you can write your own name and, these days, you also know how to pay your cellphone bill online.  Last Saturday, we got to relive the glories of being eight through Iron Mule, a monthly short comedy screening series that can totally dress itself but hasn't yet mastered cursive.

Thanks to all of you who came down to the 92YTribeca on a lovely spring weekend to help us ring in the Iron Mule 8th Anniversary Double-Feature Special Show(s)!  Our first show featured some of the best Audience Award winners from the last twelve months, including Stalk Much? by Bill Baykan of Chicago, Introduction to Physics by Caleb Foss, and hometown favorite My Apartment by dpShorts.  Kasey Williamson & dp of dpShorts shared a little bit about the movie and the temporary pause in their highly-prolific year.  It seems they're both writing for other people, but we hope they'll be back with more material soon, especially the kind with rapping.  We were also proud to highlight some great international animated films, including the beautiful black-and-white love story Yulia by Antoine Arditti of France, and the deliriously-bloody and bravely-uneducational Factoids & Slapstick by Doug Bayne of Australia.  Mixed in with all that were a few samples from our Wanna Be A Star? competition, held every month, in which a lucky audience member is chosen at random to star in a film with a title chosen by said audience and produced for the next month's show.  In the future, Iron Mule will be posting our Wanna Be A Star? films online, so watch this space for more details!

But it just wouldn't be a year-long roundup without some illustrious awards, so at the end of our program we asked our attentive and opinionated audience what they thought was best.  Their verdict?  Stalk Much? by Bill Baykan took the cake as our Audience Favorite.  And although there was, in fact, no cake (or any award of any kind), Bill can sleep soundly in the knowledge that he has all the populist bragging rights the Iron Mule can bestow.  At least, until next April.

After a brief, drink-refilling break, we moved relentlessly onward with our 2nd program, the Judges Award winners.  Highlights of the past year included How To Be Popular by John Dilley of California, Knock Knock by Iron Mule fave Jack Ferry, and Time Travel: An Allegory by Ritchie Wilson.  Jack and Ritchie were on hand to talk a little bit about their next projects: Jack and producing partner Melissa are developing an internet series called "Written Off," about a group of washed-up soap opera stars who develop their own show for the internet, and Ritchie is working on a couple of new scripts and moving out of Portland, Maine.  We also shared some favorite selections from around the world included our first film from Norway, Nemesis by Stian Hafstad, about a man in search of superpowers and a friend; and Technology, a hilarious document of one man's attempt to explain basic physics, by Alex Kelly and Third Angel of the UK.  Selections from our top-shelf animation offerings included three short films by local animator Laurie Rosenwald, including her collaboration with David Sedaris, "David's Diary"; and the award-winning bittersweet sci-fi tale, The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! by Jake Armstrong.

Since this part of the evening was dedicated to selections dear to the cold, analytical hearts of our secret cabal of judges, they were the ones to do the award-granting honors.  And the bragging rights for Judges Favorite of the Year went to Nemesis by Stian Hafstad, and runner-up How To Be Popular by John Dilley.  Congratulations, Stian and John, for making us laugh and making us think, often at the same time!

You can always find out more about our monthly screening series at http://www.ironmulenyc.com/ and on Facebook.  We hope you'll join us for our 9th year of showcasing the best in short comedy films, beginning May 1st at 8pm!

 The Iron Mule Team: from left, Lin Sorensen. Victor Varnado, and Jay Stern

Notes From Our March 6th Screening

 
On the eve of the Oscars, lucky visitors to the 92YTribeca got an early glimpse of celebrity-driven movie magic at the latest Iron Mule monthly screening, beginning with Iron Mule co-host and producer Jay Stern (left in the above photo), who fielded questions from the audience about his upcoming new feature film The Adventures of Paul and Marian.  Jay's currently in the fundraising stage of the project and will be updating Iron Mule audiences monthly as to his progress.  Jay's co-star Victor Varnado (to the right of Jay) then plugged the upcoming Comedy Central premiere of his latest directorial project, the feature film The Awkward Kings.

After these shameless plugs, our fearless hosts introduced our Guest Judge for the evening, Rob Cantrell. Rob, a comedian, author, and now recording artist, premiered the music video for his song, "Rub My Feet," directed by Victor.

Following that, our first block of films began with True Beauty This Night, a beautiful film from L.A. resident and German expat Peter Besson, about a very unconventional love story. Next up was Larry Ziegelman's Check Please, an unconventional meet-the-parents story about a father and son's battle over paying for dinner that may make the son's girlfriend think twice before joining the family. Larry (pictured below during his Q&A flew in from Chicago to talk about the film and how his recent unemployment might help him realize his dream of making more films.

Hosts Jay and Victor checked in with Guest Judge Rob, who seemed to be enjoying himself and the films. But would it last? To test his good humor, the next film on the program was Like Jumanji, by Will Newman and Jill Morris. Like the title says, the movie follows the haphazard adventures of four friends who find a mysterious board game that will change some of their lives forever. In a bad way. Will and Jill joined the hosts for a little Q & A (as seen below), sharing the story of the first incarnation of the film, at which none of the cast or crew showed up, and how that lead to a new production with a new and more reliable team.

Our next film, Mum's the Word, was our first from Newfoundland, and the film's writer, the lovely and talented Kerri MacDonald (below), flew down for the weekend to join us. She talked about the local tradition that forms the basis of the movie, "Mummery," in which Newfies put on crazy disguises and knock on other people's doors and then hang around their houses until the host can guess who they are. It's a Christmas thing. Kerri was also kind enough to bring handcarved ornaments featuring characters from the film for each of our producers. Thanks, Kerri, we love presents!

Unfortunately, since our show was running a little long, we lost our guest judge to a previous engagement. Left with an ever-shrinking cabal of judges, hosts Jay and Victor soldiered on. Our last bloc of films for the evening featured the German film, Run Granny Run! by Nikolaus von Uthmann, described as "The race from Ben-Hur, but with old ladies and their walkers." Rounding out the program, The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! follows a courageous astronaut who lands on a lonely planet determined to kill the mysterious man-eating creature of the title, but the Thing might not be so terrible after all. Animator Jake Armstrong (below, hiding in the shadows) talked about the painstaking process of hand-drawing the film, which was his thesis project at the School of Visual Arts.

While the ballots were counted, audience members were treated to this month's Wanna Be A Star? film, Nuh-Uh, starring audience member Ilya Kushnirsky and directed by first-time filmmaker, long-time theater director Annie G. Levy. For more information on this monthly audience-participation competition, please visit our website.

And when all was said and done, one film stood out from the rest. Jake Armstrong's The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! took both the Judge's Award and the Audience Award for the evening. Congratulations to Jake and to all our filmmakers, and join us next month for a very special double-feature, the Iron Mule 8th Anniversary Show! Two shows, one night, big laughs. You can get your tickets here: www.ironmulenyc.com

New Iron Mule Promo

Short Comedy Film Shortcomings Part 4: Laughing At Women, Not With Them

In the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, cranky Christopher Hitchens wrote a "provocative" article entitled, "Why Women Aren't Funny."  A hot topic among cultural critics and Jezebel readers, the article offers a confusing and all-too-common take on women and comedy at the dawn of the 21st century.  On the one hand, Mr. Hitchens seems to be saying that women have all the power, and making them laugh is the only thing men can do to get their attention; and on the other hand, he explains that women are burdened by more practical concerns, like giving birth, and therefore can't make light of the cruel world we live in.  Unfortunately, these conflicting attitudes also influence the portrayal of women in many of the submissions we receive. In fact, some of the gender-based characterizations are so antiquated it makes us wonder if the production team has ever met a human female in the flesh. And while these comic stereotypes are most prevalent in films made by male directors (who also send in the overwhelming majority of submissions, but that's for another post...), we've certainly seen them in work by female directors as well. When women are employed for comedy in these films, it's not because they get to tell the jokes; it's because they can be described as one or more of these three things:

They're Terrifying: The women in this category are all-powerful, all-knowing, and have very little interest in men. Or, at least, not in the "hapless" male protagonist.  Therefore, our Hapless Hero (very young, or very nerdy, armed only with his sense of humor) must persuade the Terrifying Lady (bold, self-reliant, built like the prow of a ship) to come down off her pedestal and be with him. While that may sound like the plot of nearly every Woody Allen movie, in the good ones (you know which ones), the woman is still her own person with her own objectives and romantic criteria. In a boon for the character in question, she may also be Diane Keaton. But in short films featuring the Terrifying Lady, she becomes "the enemy," even though she's also the main character's objective. She asserts herself as the antagonist every time she asserts herself as an individual.  We're supposed to laugh at the lengths to which the hero will go to win her heart, to bring her down to his level where she is no longer strong and terrifying.  But that doesn't make for a very convincing romance, comedy or film. It just sounds like wish-fulfillment.

They're Difficult: Another category with the funny woman as adversary, this type of woman is not a goal but an obstacle to be overcome. Why? Because she demands things of the male protagonist: money, time, attention, emotional engagement, gifts, romance, sex. As a result, the comedy comes from the put-upon man trying to meet the fickle needs of his woman, whose only purpose in life, apparently, is to flummox him. Irrational behavior is one of the cornerstones of comedy, George Burns & Gracie Allen being one of the most satisfying examples. But, unlike George Burns who directed all credit for their hilarity to Gracie, many of our submitting filmmakers seem genuinely angry with their Difficult Women. They play it for laughs but the underlying story is that these wacky women are holding the main character back, miring him in a dismal, half-hearted comedy when he should be starring in the sequel to Scarface, or some other lofty all-male endeavor. As in Mr. Hitchens' article, the comedy that stems from the Difficult Woman's petty day-to-day concerns ironically becomes the reason why "women aren't funny." Having a demanding and difficult antagonist is ripe for humor, if the woman is portrayed as an individual, but it loses its juice if she behaves that way simply because "that's how women are."  Because it's often not true.

They're Secretly Men: The weirdly positive category. In the recent film, "Up In the Air," the female lead says to her male counterpart, "Think of me as you, with a vagina." While the movie ultimately upends that idea, many of our submitting filmmakers seem to take the sentiment more seriously. The usual storyline goes like this: the young male lead develops a crush on his buxom, sassy co-worker/bartender/sister's friend. Once he gets her attention (haplessly; see "Terrifying" above), it becomes clear that they're both looking for the same thing: a buddy. She swears, she swaggers, she likes sports, she can hold her liquor; she's actually more "man" than he is. And she's got that sweet rack. The problem is, once you get past the whole "chick acting like a dude" thing, Secretly Man Woman doesn't provide any further conflict (or humor) because she doesn't have any of her own needs or goals. She's like a funhouse mirror where the protagonist sees only a reflection of himself, but with exciting new shapes. There will often be a female character from one of the other categories lingering on the sidelines, providing a vivid reminder of the kind of woman men don't want. She's bitchy, she's demanding, she's emotional, but all a guy really wants is a girl who's just one of the boys.

The solution to all of this is a simple one.  Filmmakers: take an interest in all of your characters.  Put yourself in their shoes, think about what they want, consider what they add to your story. One-note characters and stereotypes can get an easy laugh, but nothing beats the conflict of individuals with their own believable agendas. Sure, Hollywood gets away with casual sexism all the time, but we don't laugh when they do it either.  And we haven't even talked about women as lead characters!  But sadly we don't get very many of those either.  Needless to say, ignoring or shortchanging women leaves the comic potential of half the world's population unmined.  And that's a lot of short films waiting to be made.

Check back with us next week, when we'll be posting another Movies We Love entry, devoted to great funny women in short film.  Because we believe in negative AND positive reinforcement!

http://www.ironmulenyc.com/
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Rob Cantrell to Guest Judge at March 6th Iron Mule Screening

We're pleased to have Rob Cantrell joining us a special guest judge at the March 6th Iron Mule screening.

Comedian Rob Cantrell, a Washington DC native, has performed stand up on several major networks, including CBS’s Late Late Show and as a Top 10 Finalist on the very first season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. He tours the World making people laugh, most recently as a member of the Marijuana- logues, and as a Celebrity Judge at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Rob is a contributing writer for High Times Magazine and various TV Shows. In 2009, he was signed to Stellah Records and released his debut comedy/music album Keep On The Grass. Rob lives in Brooklyn with his wife and 14 imperial poodles.