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September 16, 2009

Stingray Sam is alive!

It's been eight long years since Cory McAbee's beloved The American Astronaut flickered across the silver screen, enchanting audiences with its gorgeous monochrome imagery, laconic humor and musical numbers about girls with vaginas made of glass. Now, finally, his directorial follow-up is out in the world: fter premiering at Sundance and playing in full at festivals all spring, Stingray Sam has arrived at the destination it was created for: your computer. Episode 1 can be viewed or downloaded at www.stingraysam.com, and the subsequent five will available in short order. A DVD of the entire series is also available.

The series is a cousin once removed from The American Astronaut; sequel isn't quite the right word, but much is the same, including the black and white 35mm cinematograhoy and McAbee himself, once again playing a titular cowboy hero. But there's something new here, and that would be Willa Vy McAbee, Cory's daughter, who plays the young lass upon whose rescue the plot hinges and who, I'd wager, is the source of the unabashed sweetness that seeps into the series, episode by episode, welling up around the bizzaro jokes and musical numbers (and an overall obsession with olives). This is partially because she's such an adorable little ingenue - but also because it's implicitly clear that she has a father who loves her very, very much.

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This series - and the model of distribution it represents - is of particular interest to me at the moment, given the direction my next film go. I'd write more about all that, but I'm in Austin, and I left my computer's power supply in LA, and it's about to fall sound asleep. More soon, I promise!

Posted by David Lowery at September 16, 2009 6:55 PM