"The Unlikely Story of OMG/HaHaHa"

Written by Chris McCoy -"The Intruder" Blog Writer www.livefrommemphis.com

"It's the Titanic of Indie Memphis." That's what film critic Elvis Mitchell called Morgan Jon Fox'sOMG/HAHAHA as he awarded it yet another of the six prizes the film won at the 2008 edition of Indie Memphis. Since then, the film has been wowing audiencesand juries on two continents, winning the Reeling 2008 festival in Chicago and inviting comparisons to Larry Clark's groundbreaking 1995 film Kids from critics in London, where OMG/HAHAHA is currently screening at the Bradford International Film Festival. "It's funny, because when I finished it, I thought it would be a rinky-dink little project," Fox says. "I thought, 'I'm going to enjoy this, and it's going to be fun, but it's a big, experimental mess that's not going to be well received at all.'"

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OMG/HaHaHa wins Jury Award for Best Feature Film at Reeling 2008: The 27th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival. 

Brenda Webb, Director/Founder of Reeling Film Fest, and Morgan Jon Fox, director of OMG/HaHaHa

Full list of award winners from Reeling 2008:

Jury Awards

Feature Length Narrative: OMG/HaHaHa by Morgan Jon Fox 

Feature Length Documentary: Pageant by Ron Davis

Short Narrative: Second Guessing Grandma by Wil LaFayette

Short Documentary: Get Happy by Mark Payne

Short Animation/Experimental: Tomboy by Barb Taylor

Audience Awards

Feature Length Narrative: Ruby Blue by Sarah-Leigh Treadwell

Feature Length Documentary: Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band by Michael Carmona

Short Narrative: Who I AM by Robert York

Short Documentary: Get Happy by Mark Payne

Short Animation/Experimental: Tomboy by Barb Taylor

The Reeling 2008 Festival Jury included: Robert Addis, Ron Brown, Daniel Finley, Susan Forester, Amanda Geppert, Stewart Gonshrey, David Liesse, Gretchen Lindall, Rick Simkin, Sharon Stevens, Jamie Williamson, and Israel Wright.

OMG/HaHaHa opens tonight, and runs through next Thursday(Oct 30th) at Malco's Studio On The Square.

Read the article, by John Beifuss on our week-long run.

OMG/HaHaHa gets a week-long exclusive engagement at Studio on The Square!

Dubbed the "Titanic of Indie Memphis" after it won 6 awards at the festival, has been given a week-long engagement at Studio On The Square where it will screen on a regular schedule all day for 7 days. 

DATES OF EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT at STUDIO on THE SQUARE:

Friday October 24th - Thursday October 30th

We are very thankful for all of you who made it out to Indie Memphis.

***There will be some surprises screening both before OMG, and after the credits....so even if you already saw our lil film at the festival, your attendance during this run will give you a chance to see some special lil things....stay tuned for more info!

Please help spread the word....

WE LOVE YOU!!!

OMG! Morgan Jon Fox’s Indie Memphis ‘Titanic’ Scoops Up Awards

OMG/HaHaHa wins 6 awards at Indie Memphis film festival, and Sawed-Off's Brett Hanover, and Kentucker Audley also took best of awards in their respective categories of Hometowner Documentary and Hometowner short films.  

From John Beifuss' article on the awards ceremony:

"The movie’s title is odd, but its content resonated with jurors: “omg/HaHaHa,” the fourth fea

ture from Memphis director Morgan Jon Fox, was the big winner Sunday night at the 11th annual Indie Memphis Film FestivalThe festival, which began Friday, Oct. 11, continues through Thursday, Oct. 16. at Malco’s Studio on the Square. Awards were presented during a ceremony and party at downtown’s Ground Zero Blues Club.

Jokingly dubbed “the ‘Titanic’ of Indie Memphis” because of its awards haul, “omg/HaHaHa” 

–created with assistant director John Tom Roemer, who now lives in New York — screens ag

ain at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

A tender and impressionistic film structured as a series of video blog entries and stream-of-

consciousness vignettes about families, friends, lovers and loners in Midtown Memp

his, the essentially no-budget but beautifully photographed “omg/HaHaHa“ was named best feature in the festival’s “Hometowner” category, devoted to films produced by residents of Memphis and Shelby County.  

The festival jury also decided to award a “Special Jury Prize for Directing” to Fox, and a “Special Jury Prize for Acting” to two of the film’s young stars, Jake Casey and Ed Porter. The jury also gave “omg/HaHaHa” a “Special Recognition” award in the Narrative Feature category (in which it competed with fims produced outside of Memphis).

“omg/HaHaHa” also won the new “Special Achievement in Editing by a Memphis Filmmaker” award, sponsored by the technology company, Avid. The sweet prize for that victory: Avid Media Composer software, worth about $2,500.

Juror Elvis Mitchell, former film critic for The New York Times and host of the “Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence” program on the Turner Classic Mo

vies channel, said “omg/HaHaHa” — the title is Internet slang for “oh my god,” followed by laughter — is “both playful and innovative.”

Said Mitchell: “It feels like something that really is the next step – a film that could play just as well on a laptop or a cell phone as in a theater. Moviemakers have been reaching to capture that for several years now, and this achieves that feeling...”

Read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Beifuss and Herrington on OMG/HaHaHa @ Indie Memphis

Indie Memphis 2008: The Way They See Things - ‘Hometowner’ Fiction Films from Morgan Jon Fox and Brian Pera     

-John Beifuss   The Bloodshot Eye

Evolution:  Memphis filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox's third feature is a visual leap forward.

-Chris Herrington  The Memphis Flyer