Second Nature
Written by Michael Cross, JC Ford, Edi Zanidache
Directed by Michael Cross
Starring Collette Wolfe, Sam Huntington, Carollani Sandberg, Carolyn Cox, Riley Shanahan
80 Minutes
Cross Films | Mirror Images LTD
Release date: November 10, 2016 (Napa Valley Film Festival)

In the small town of Louisburg, WA, Mayor Gleason is having a drunken joyride with his mistress, complete with bonus fellatio and some not so bonus driving right off a cliff. This leaves his position open for election.

Queue Bret and Amanda, who both decide to run for Mayor. Bret and Amanda are not a couple. They were childhood political rivals where he won (of course), and now they work together (he’s the boss, of course). They’re initially presented as stereotypes of their gender — she does yoga and listens to affirmation audio, while he watches sports while having sex — but then things go haywire after they each make a wish about how men and women should act. This is the set-up for Michael Cross‘s gender-swapping political comedy Second Nature, starring Sam Huntington (Sully, Superman Returns, Detroit Rock City) and Collette Wolfe (You’re the Worst, Hot Tub Time Machine).

At Granny’s House
DVD | VOD
Written and directed by Les Mahoney
Starring Bill Oberst, Jr, Rachel Alig, Glenda Morgan Brown, Les Mahoney
Vagabond Entertainment
Release date: May 24, 2016

At Granny’s House is what happens when a female Dexter runs an Airbnb. Eager to give up all responsibility for his elderly mother, a man hires her a full-time live-in caretaker. Rebecca (Rachel Alig) is young and beautiful. Her resume includes a variety of odd jobs including IT work, and working in a mortuary. Granny (Gloria Morgan Brown) is hesitant and skeptical. She thinks Rebecca was hired by her son for her looks. Granny’s house is an old fashioned multi-level home. Rebecca is offered a room upstairs, but decides to move into the spacious basement. Again, this draws looks of skepticism. Despite this, Rebecca wins her over and they develop a strange but real friendship. In a different world, this is the beginning of a wonderful comedy about two women from different generations forming a lifelong bond. In writer/director Les Mahoney‘s world, this is the setup for a bizarre, seductive, and violent horror film.

“So if we’re not funny, blame Ethan’s disability.”

Asperger’s Are Us is two things: a former comedy troupe made up of four friends with varying degrees of autism, and a documentary chronicling their story and last show together. These young men, Ethan Finlan, New Michael Ingemi, Noah Britton, and Jack Hanke, give us a look inside real friendships, that most people don’t get to see.

Check out the trailer here below for the film Asperger’s Are Us.

Long-time director Michael Cross will see the world premiere this week of his feature debut with the gender-swapping political comedy Second Nature. The film stars Collette Wolfe (Hot Tub Time Machine) and Sam Huntington (Superman Returns, Detroit Rock City) as small-town mayoral campaign rivals whose lives are turned upside down after they’re magically transported to a mirrored reality where gender roles are reversed and women are in power. It’s not your typical body-swap comedy, but it definitely deserves an honored place in the subgenre.

We got a chance to talk to Cross about his inspiration for the long-gestating movie, a project funded through Kickstarter; what it was like to film it in his hometown, and to direct his famous photographer cat; how he pulled off such a well-crafted comedy on a limited budget and schedule; what the world would be like if women ruled, and much more.

The director has also given us an exclusive first-look at a pertinent clip from Second Nature, which you can watch here below at the end of the interview.

At this year’s PAX South, I spoke with Thibaut Hanson, a programmer at Fishing Cactus, about their latest game Epistory.

Epistory is an adventure game that tells the story of a writer lacking inspiration who asks her muse to help write her latest book. The adventure begins with a girl on a fox traversing a world that opens up as you solve its mysteries and defeat its enemies.