Massachusetts Museum Screens Comedy Films

Named for a 1925 slapstick comedy by "Fatty" Arbuckle that featured Buster Keaton, Iron Mule is a monthly short comedy film series in New York City.

Since 2002, the series has brought together a collective of filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate the finest in short comedy. Travelling north, the curators of the festival have handpicked a “best of” selection which will screen outdoors in Courtyard C under the stars (moving inside if rain threatens). According to Time Out New York, the festival has “only two submission requirements—each film must run under half an hour and be funny—they showcase everything from two-minute gag shorts made by high-school students on computers to character-driven narratives shot on 35mm by advertising executives.”

Films screened at the Iron Mule have gone on to be seen on HBO, Cinemax,the Sundance Channel, Comedy Central and the BBC, and have also screened at Cannes, Sundance, and the HBO Comedy Arts Film Festival among many other places. In their seven years, they have shown nearly 650 movies. Name writers, actors, and comedians whose work has appeared at the festival include Stephen Colbert, Chris Elliott, Dana Gould, the cast of the Human Giant, writers for the Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, the Sarah Silverman Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Tonight Show. But Festival founders Victor Varnado and Jay Stern aren’t impressed with names; they pride themselves on showing funny, smart, short comedy films from any source.

The films will be organized into the "blocks" for the screening: low budget, animation, documentary, and music/dance. At least two filmmakers, Dale Goodson and Will Carlough, will be in attendance as well as Varnado and Stern.

The films to be shown include: Beep, written and directed by Victor Varnado about a couple whose relationship struggles to survive a new answering machine; The Cralough Bros., written and directed by Will Carlough which follows the brothers on a death-defying adventure cross country to discover the terrifying secret behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze; Deere, John, written and directed by Mitchell Rose, a fantasy about a man and a machine; and Lo-Tech Animation, written and directed by Jim Torok; Other films are Masters of the Universe, written and directed by Kevin Maher, a personal story of growing up by this writer, director, and comedian; The Old Negro Space Program, written and directed by Andy Bobrow, the untold story of forgotten American heroes--the Blackstronauts; Portrait of the Artist at 16, written and directed by Jay Stern and M. Sweeney Lawless in which we meet a 16-year-old artist and his demons; Fuel, written and directed by Dale Goodson about man’s insatiable hunger for fuel; The Dentist, a film that explores the relationship between the Uncooperating Patient and the Enthusiastic Dentist written and directed by Signe Baumane,; Kunstbar a visit to the artiest bar around written and directed by the Petrie Lounge, and more.

Jay Stern has directed and produced over 30 short films which have screened in festivals across the U.S., Canada and Europe, and directed over 20 theater productions, including several New York premieres.

In 2010 he will direct Poe... and the Museum of Lost Arts, starring Theo Bleckmann, Rinde Eckert, and Pamela Z at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in New York City. Jay is also a founder of the award-winning internationally-syndicated Quicksilver Radio Theater Company.

His first feature film The Changeling opened in New York City in May, 2007. His next feature, The Adventures of Paul and Marian, is currently in preproduction. Stern is a PhD candidate at the European Graduate school, where he studied with Peter Greenaway, Claude Lanzmann, Agnes Varda, John Waters, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Jaques Derrida. -- www.massmoca.org