DFW IndieClub brings short film Gong Show to Dallas

Featuring a video interview with Jack E. Jett and Libby Mitchell.

by John P. Meyer

On the evening of Sunday, June 22, there will be a unique movie-themed, audience interactive event happening at the Studio Movie Grill in Dallas.

Remember TV's classic The Gong Show, in which performers of unestablished talent appeared before a panel of semi-celebrity judges and tried not to stink up the stage to the point where the panelists were forced to grab up a mallet and whack the big brass gong to shut them down?

Well, translate that format to present day North Dallas and apply it to independent film shorts and you'll have a general idea of what's going down at the June 22 event, where three local luminaries will hold sway over the mallet and gong that determines the run-time fate of a selection of short films entered in the competition. The judges will be Gini Mascorro (from KERA), Jack E. Jett (of The QueerEdge) and actor Drew Waters (Mad Money; Inspector Mom). Mary Jo Pehl (of MST3K and Cinematic Titanic fame) will emcee the event.

The call for entries went out in Feb.; since then about 100 films have been submitted from around the world, though only a select subset of that group will screen Sunday evening. When all is said and done (and seen), four cash prizes will be awarded to the least-gonged (and therefore most-liked) of the shorts, to wit:

* 1st Place: $1,000

* 2nd Place: $500

* 3rd Place: $250

* Audience Choice: $500

(I've previewed three of the shorts in the program, and they do indeed run the gamut from ones you'd choose to either gong or - lacking a gong - destroy by any means at hand; to the sort of thing you'd be glad to sit through for five minutes or so if you had nothing else to do; to an amazing piece of filmmaking with a thrilling story line and an out-of-left-field twist ending.)

Doors open at 6:30, with the $10 ticket price going to support the establishment of a Dallas/Fort Worth-based film production grant, expected to net the first recipient somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000. (In other words, gas money.)

A few days ago a couple of the principals involved in the DFW IndieClub Gong Show stopped by PegNews World HQ to chat with us about the big event.