ALL YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT IWC FILMS (and a few things you wish you didn't) IWC Films was founded in 2002 in the small hamlet of Fairmont, West Virginia, when Justin Channell and Joshua Lively made the obvious choice of what they should do with their lives at the age of fourteen: make movies. Pulling in Zane Crosby as an actor and makeup artist and Channell's experience editing the junior high school news show, IWC Films was founded. Several unmentionable short films followed. At fifteen years old, Channell founded The Mini-Cinema Film Festival, a small no-entry fee, no ticket charge film festival at the Book N Bean coffee shop in Fairmont (ie: the kind of thing you could do for fun when you were 15). While mostly focusing on shorts at first the festival later screened several features, including hosting the East Coast Premiere of LOLLILOVE (directed by Jenna Fischer of NBC's The Office and co-starring James Gunn, writer of Slither, Tromeo & Juliet, Dawn of the Dead 2004, The Specials)(Editor's Note: I'm a big fan.) In 2004, IWC Films embarked on it's first feature film endeavor, RAISING THE STAKES, which was funded with money pocketed from not spending money on souvenirs on a school trip to Disney World. The film took seven months to complete, featured cameos from Troma's Lloyd Kaufman and horror host Count Gore De Vol, and went on to be released on DVD by Freak Productions (later reissued by Brainwrap DVD... read on). RAISING THE STAKES won 1st place at the West Virginia International Film Festival Student Competition and director Justin Channell was named Outstanding Art Student 2005 by the Marion County Arts and Humanities Commission. Press coverage for the film included being declared one of the top 10 outsider independent DVD releases by DVDTalk.com and coverage in Fangoria, Joblo.com, Film Threat, PopMatters, and others. After that, the short documentary WESTBORO MEETS WEST VIRGINIA was filmed, which recieved some small screenings and is set to be released on DVD soon. Summer 2006 was the initial starting date for the second IWC Films feature, DIE & LET LIVE, but after one night of filming, lots of shit went bad and we decided it wasn't working out. After nearly a year of script revisions, we began on what would become the actual production of DIE & LET LIVE. Luckily, the exposure we got through RAISING THE STAKES allowed us to get a bigger cast, enlisting many people we had met throughout promoting at conventions, festivals, etc. Our cast included appearances by Lloyd Kaufman (reprising his role from RTS), Trent Haaga (writer of the upcoming Poor Things, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4, and star of Terror Firmer and The Ghouls), and a voiceover from Debbie Rochon (Terror Firmer, Tromeo & Juliet, Dead & Rotting, Fangoria Radio). The premiere of DIE & LET LIVE was held on December 1st, 2006 at the Warner Theatre in Morgantown, WV. The theatre was nearly sold out and the film went on to gain accolade from reviewers and screen a couple more times since then, while we continue our ongoing quest for distribution. In the meantime, iwcfilms.com launched in March 2007 to help us provide online content for our films easier, as well as allow us a place to showcase a ridiculous amount of videos. We're also launching a DVD-R distribution label/authoring company called BRAINWRAP DVD. Our first releases will be a reissue of RAISING THE STAKES, our never-before-released documentary WESTBORO MEETS MEST VIRGINIA, and the comedy short CAFFEINE HEADACHE starring Mike Wiebe, lead singer of The Riverboat Gamblers (Volcom Records), who is also set to provide a commentary track for the film with director Eric Rhoades. We will also be working on a DVD release for the band It's Birds, the Don't Break Anything Fest 8 DVD for Project Active Media, as well as an upcoming documentary about the 213 Green Street Artspace in Morgantown, WV. We have more feature film ideas brewing, so hold tight for that. Right now, we have a comedy project in development titled THE PROMISED LANES that we hope to have completed by 2008 as well as some other plans. That's it. More may be added soon... keep checking the site and join the mailing list!