"The Iron Mule" is a 1925 slapstick comedy by the great silent comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, featuring Buster Keaton as an Indian! The name also encapsulates the kind of movies we love to show; tough, burly, uncompromising shorts which can't be stopped. The Iron Mule was also an early name for the movie camera (perhaps an allusion to "The Iron Horse," a term for the locomotive).

The Iron Mule Short Comedy Screening Series was founded in April, 2002, as First Sundays, at the Chicago City Limits Theater in NYC and has been screening monthly ever since.

We are a collective of filmmakers and film lovers who meet monthly to celebrate funny and inventive short cinema among friends. Join us if you dare!

The Iron Mule is partners with iThentic.com!

iThentic.com is a destination site that aggregates and distributes the very best video content, including short films and web series. Launched in 2006, the site provides a tastemaker service that helps viewers navigate the overabundance of online video by offering professionally produced and innovative videos that can be comfortably labeled 'the best'. iThentic works closely with its content creators, offering close individual attention as they increase the online exposure, ad revenue, and even additional distribution and exhibition opportunities for its content while uniting the content creators and viewer communities.

Films screened at the Iron Mule are regularly submitted to iThentic.com for consideration for distribution on their website.

THE IRON MULE TEAM

JAY STERN
Jay has produced and directed over 30 short films which have won awards from numerous festivals and have been screened across the US, Canada, and Europe. Jay's first feature film The Changeling opened in 2007, and his second feature, Spirit Cabinet, is in post production. His newest feature, a romantic comedy musical adventure, The Adventures of Paul and Marian, completed shooting in the June, 2011. Jay also produced Victor Varnado's films Roboto Supremo and The Awkward Comedy Show, which premiered on Comedy Central this April. Jay is also a founding member of Quicksilver Radio Theater, whose award-winning radio dramas have been syndicated nationally. He is a former producer of Chicago City Limits and is a Ph.D. candiate at the European Graduate School, where he studied with Peter Greenaway, John Waters, Jaques Derrida, Claude Lanzmann, Agnes Varda and Volker Schlöndorff. Some of his short films, made in collaboration with M. Sweeney Lawless, can be seen at www.jaystern.com.

VICTOR VARNADO
Victor Varnado is a comedian, actor, writer, and director. As a comedian he has appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live!  and Comedy Central, and as an actor he has appeared alongside Eddie Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Julia Stiles, and Werner Herzog. As a director, Victor has worked with Charlie Murphy and Dave Attell (in Warner Brother's Twisted Fortune) and most recently with Michel Gondry for Victor's latest short film Roboto Supremo. His latest feature, The Awkward Comedy Show, a documentary about alternative African-American comedians, premiered on Comedy Central in April, 2010, and is available on DVD by New Video. Learn more about Victor at bestalbino.com.

PAUL ZUCKERMAN
is artistic director and producer at Chicago City Limits, and a founding member of Chicago City Limits. He studied improvisation in Chicago with Del Close and Jo Forsberg at The Second City , and helped bring CCL to New York in 1979. He performed with the company for over 10 years, and has appeared in a number of TV and film productions, including Lovesick, Cagney & Lacey, PBS's Reading Rainbow, Tales of the Unexpected, The Today Show and Reel News on the USA Network. Directing Credits include 25 Chicago City Limits comedy Revues, Comedy Et Al, television's first interactive comedy series, and the Off-Broadway comedy Rosa Krantz and Gilda Stern Aren't Dead, which featured CCL alumnae Linda Gelman and Carol Schindler. Paul holds a doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Michigan. He is married to Linda Gelman, with whom he co-produced Zara, Philip and Eli.

See the Jay & Victor Interview at The New Roots Project!

FEATURED IN TIME OUT NEW YORK!

Jay and Victor interviewed on independentfilm.com

watch the interview here!