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Austin, Texas filmmaker Don Swaynos’s howlingly funny surrealist comedy Pictures of Superheroes is now available to rent and buy on VOD. You can stream the film on Amazon, as well as get the film via outlets such as iTunes, Google Play and other outlets.

The film stars a fantastically deadpan Kerri Lendo as Marie, a professional cleaning woman who gets dumped by her boyfriend, Phil (Byron Brown) and hired by a manic entrepeneur, Eric (Shannon McCormick), on the same day. While cleaning Eric’s suburban home, Marie discover that the businessman has a hidden, child-like roommate, Joe (John Merriman), who may or may not have romantic notions towards her.

Have You Seen This Movie? Available On: Amazon

Lendo, a stand-up comedian and filmmaker in her own right, makes her feature film acting debut here and carries the film perfectly as a stranger — riddled with her own pent-up neuroses — navigating...

In the classic underground movie book Visionary Film, historian P. Adams Sitney coined the term “trance film” to describe the primary type of post-wwii avant-garde cinema that was in vogue at the time. In Sitney’s view, short movies such as Maya Deren‘s Meshes of the Afternoon, Kenneth Anger‘s Fireworks and Stan Brakhage‘s Flesh of Morning all feature somnambulist protagonists wandering through surrealist nightmare worlds of their own psyche.

Movies featuring sleepwalking main characters are, of course, the antithesis of popular mainstream entertainment, which at all times attempts to thrill the masses with tales of heroes of extraordinary abilities doing amazing things.

Flash forward about 70 years and Don Swaynos‘ debut feature film, the surrealist comedy Pictures of Superheroes, doesn’t quite fit Sitney’s “trance” mold, but it’s main character, professional cleaning woman Marie (Kerri Lendo), does appear to be sleepwalking through her life. The film...

I admit I couldn't help but be excited about a movie that was primarily shot in my neighborhood, although you couldn't tell from watching Pictures of Superheroes. Much of the film takes place in a house where filmmaker Don Swaynos was living at the time, which is several blocks away from my own home. You wouldn't know it without his telling you, though.

I saw Pictures of Superheroes on Saturday at its world premiere, and afterward, emailed Swaynos a few questions about the movie. The answers are below. Don't worry, they're not spoilery. I liked the movie very much and encourage you all to see it at Austin Film Festival tonight at 7 pm at the Texas State Theater in the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. Swaynos and probably some other cast/crew will be there and you too can ask him questions. Check out Debbie's review for more details.

Slackerwood:...

Like an absurd psychological study of the multiple personalities of modern life in Austin, writer-director Don Swaynos’ Pictures of Superheroes cleverly juxtaposes a slackerish man-child with a self-absorbed entrepreneur. Joe (John Merriman) and Eric (Shannon McCormick) reside in the same house together but have grown so far apart that Eric no longer recognizes Joe’s existence. Literally, Eric is so busy that forgets that he has a roommate; all the while, Joe stays around the house all day, haunting Eric by perpetually messing up the house. On one fateful day, Eric discovers Marie (Kerri Lendo) hopelessly wandering down the street while donning the maid’s uniform in which she lives, sleeps and dreams. Eric hires Marie as his personal maid, thus dragging her into the absurd world in which he exists.

Much like Austin music, the local comedy scene has seen its ups and downs through the last couple of decades. Lately Austin comedians have received more recognition not just on stage but onscreen. Sometimes the writing and delivery of stand-up doesn't translate well to the silver screen. However, this year Austin Film Festival features Pictures of Superheroes, a local movie that not only showcases great comedic talent but congeals their multiple personalities in a humorous and insightful tale written and directed by Don Swaynos.

Pictures of Superheroes drops viewers into the humdrum life of maid-for-hire Marie played by Kerri Lendo (Sleep Study) as she deals with her insensitive boyfriend Phil (Byron Brown) and even sleazier boss Gil (Chris Doubek) who runs the French Maid "Cleaning" Service, which fronts as a prostitution store. After being fired from her job and breaking up with Phil, Marie is hired off the street by...

Like an absurd psychological study of the multiple personalities of modern life in Austin, writer/director Don Swaynos’, Pictures of Superheroes cleverly juxtaposes a slackerish man-child with a self-absorbed entrepreneur. Joe (John Merriman) and Eric (Shannon McCormick) reside in the same house together but have grown so far apart that Eric no longer recognizes Joe’s existence. Literally, Eric is so busy that forgets that he has a roommate; all the while, Joe stays around the house all day, haunting Eric by perpetually messing up the house. On one fateful day, Eric discovers Marie (Kerri Lendo) hopelessly wandering down the street while donning the maid’s uniform in which she lives, sleeps and dreams. Eric hires Marie as his personal maid, thus dragging her into the absurd world in which he exists. Swaynos’ script is saturated with dry and subtle humor built upon the surreal situation of someone no longer realizing that they have a roommate. Pictures...

Like an absurd psychological study of the multiple personalities of modern life in Austin, writer-director Don Swaynos', Pictures of Superheroes cleverly juxtaposes a slackerish man-child with a self-absorbed entrepreneur. Joe (John Merriman) and Eric (Shannon McCormick) reside in the same house together but have grown so far apart, that Eric no longer recognizes Joe's existence -- literally, Eric is so busy that forgets that he has a roommate. While Eric never stops working, Joe never works. Joe has a job as a bus boy at a restaurant, but he has not worked there for several weeks. So Joe presumably stays around the house all day, haunting Eric by perpetually messing up the house. This is precisely where Marie (Kerri Lendo) comes in.

I received ton of emails after my “What Works for Austin Filmmakers?” post last week, which provided me with motivation to continue on with part two this week. One thing is obvious, this is a very touchy and emotional subject. Several filmmakers contacted me with their personal insights, all of which will appear one way or another in this or subsequent posts. Some emails were critical of certain members of the local film community, but I will not mention anyone’s names. My goal is to do whatever I can to help foster a more supportive and successful film community, so I am not here to get in the middle of any personal grievances. I do think there is a certain level of validity in many of the claims, but I will keep the criticisms as general as possible. So, I ended my last post with my thoughts on micro-budget genre films and promised to discuss comedies...

Was the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival, whose inaugural run took place last weekend in Austin, Texas, "important for comedy"? Who knows. Probably. What is clear, though, is that the four-day festival took advantage of the ubiquity stand-up comedy is currently enjoying and ran with it, producing a full-fledged, comedy fan-friendly destination where both established stars and up-and-coming comedians took the stage to inspire laughter. Taking advantage of the Diy media that comedians have fully embraced, Moontower turned podcast listeners and Twitter followers into delirious audience members for one April weekend.

As Dan Solomon of Austin CultureMap rightly pointed out, the festival's bookers succeeded not just in terms of a comedy festival, but for any kind of arts festival. The headliners it attracted -- Seth Meyers, Aziz Ansari, Jeff Ross -- hold cache in the world of comedy that most music fests are lucky to ever get, especially in their first year of existence.

The Dallas International Film Festival has announced 15 of the films in its 2012 lineup, and not only does Texas make a great showing, but Austin is well represented. I'm hoping to attend the festival this year, the selections look so good so far. Some notable non-Texas films include Lawrence Kasdan's Darling Companion, which has former Austinite Mark Duplass in the cast; The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, the directorial debut of actor Ryan O'Nan (The Dry Land), and Takashi Shimizu's Tormented.

Cinema Six, the latest feature from filmmakers Mark Potts and Cole Selix (S&M Lawn Care), will have its world premiere at the festival, which takes place from April 12-22 (corrected from original text). Jenn and I visited the set in Lockhart last year (when the movie was called A Splice of Life). The filmmakers aren't from Austin, but many of their cast and crew are: producer Kelly Williams,...

Pictures of Superheroes is the debut feature comedy by Austin-based filmmaker Don Swaynos, who previously has directed numerous music videos, short films and documentaries.

Marie (Kerri Lendo) is hired as a maid by businessman Eric (Shannon McCormick) who also asks her to pretend to be his wife to seduce his clients. While cleaning Eric’s home, Marie becomes close to Joe (John Merriman), an aspiring superhero artist who also lives in Eric’s house, although unbeknownst to Eric.

Swaynos first came to the attention to Bad LIt: The Journal of Underground Film with his hilarious short film In Defense of Definitions, which screened at the 2007 Austin Underground Film Festival. Bad Lit also favorably reviewed the compelling Iraq war documentary Year at Danger that Swaynos co-directed with National Guardsman Steve Metze.

To learn more about the film, please visit the official Pictures of Superheroes website. Plus, check out Don Swaynos’ official website.

Directors: Kerri Lendo, John Merriman Writers: Kerri Lendo, John Merriman Starring: Kerri Lendo, John Merriman, J. Kevin Smith Are you having difficulties sleeping? Well, you should probably drop whatever you are doing and visit John Merriman. Wait, that could be totally be taken the wrong way -- as if Merriman will lull you into a deep sleep because he is so damn boring to be around. That is not what I am alluding to at all. In "fact", Merriman is a "doctor" and he is "conducting" a sleep "study." Do you need an example of his "brilliance" before "committing" yourself? Well, sit back and observe the dark secrets that Merriman is able to unlock from within Kerri Lendo's dream state. Pretty wacky, huh? Well, just you wait because this surreal little short film has much bigger tricks hidden up its proverbial sleeves. Let us just say that Sleep Study...

Last year the Slackerwood gang declared it the Year of (Chris) Doubek, seeing the local actor everywhere in numerous films. This year it seems to be the Year of Merriman, even if several of the movies in which he appears won't hit screens until next year.

If you played the six-degree game, you'd have plenty of degrees left over to connect to John Merriman in the Austin and indie film scene. He's acted in at least six feature films in the last year, including  You Hurt My Feelings and An Ordinary Family, which are playing Austin Film Festival this week. He's also in the cast of the upcoming Pictures of Superheroes, Cinema Six, The Man from Orlando and Loves Her Gun, all shot locally this year. Merriman has been in countless shorts including his own Sleep Study (co-written and co-directed by Kerri Lendo), which played Aff last year, and Scott Rice...

The Los Angeles Film Festival has a heavy dose of Austin in its lineup this year. Not only that, but I've counted at least three films involving local actor John Merriman (pictured above with Kerri Lendo at Aff 2010). Is there some sort of conspiracy afoot? Is he becoming the Austin version of Dick Miller? Along with the films playing at Laff, I've been on set visits this year for two upcoming movies with Merriman in them, and he was in one of the SXSW bumpers this year. I think someone needs to look into this before something tragic -- or very funny -- happens.

Merriman aside, here are the Austin-connected features and shorts popping up all over Laff in June:

In the narrative competition, the latest feature from Mike Akel (Chalk), An Ordinary Family, is premiering. The locally shot movie is set at a family reunion where one man shows up with his new boyfriend.