The Mayo Conspiracy - How absurd is too absurd to be funny? A passing glance at news headlines on any given day will remind you that reality is becoming more absurd every day. So when Montgomery County natives Craig Horwitz and Anthony Vollmer envisioned a conspiracy mockumentary, they were careful to pick a topic that they could comfortably bet would never make headlines.
Something innocuous. Something above all the noise. Something... white. They came to rest on mayonnaise, and The Mayo Conspiracy was born. Horwitz and Vollmer pressed on, tongues firmly in cheeks, revealing the shady underbelly of America’s most unlikeable condiment through found footage unmasking the unspeakable controversy, and interview segments. The best of these were between Horwitz and the stone faced insider-turned-informant, M (Vollmer.) The exposé traces an elaborate history of the “condiment from hell” from the dawn of recorded history, to 1756 France, and on to the aisles of the world’s largest marketplaces, with a stop along the way to give one angry German man a hunger for world domination.
The Mayo Conspiracy owed much of its appeal to the fact that this was beyond absurd. Then something wonderful happened. Reality wouldn’t allow this tale to be too absurd to be true. A small condiment producer, Hampton Creek, was peddling a new “egg-free” mayo, and was immediately beset on all sides by the wrath of food behemoth Unilever, The American Egg Board, The United States Food and Drug Administration, and even its own employees. Hampton Creek fought off a nearly unending (and still ongoing) volley of legal attacks from the deep pockets of big industry. Watching this film and knowing that it tried as hard as it could to be unbelieveable is fun. Watching this film and knowing that the real world wouldn’t stand for an unbelievable controversy makes it infinitely better.
The Mayo Conspiracy caught all the right attention on the festival circuit. The Philly-based production won Best Feature Comedy at The World’s Independent Film Festival, Best Feature Comedy at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, Best Director at the Pocono Mountains Film Festival (Craig Horwitz & Anthony Vollmer), and Featured Filmmakers at the Princeton Independent Film Festival. Buncha Bags Entertainment is planning a home release soon. Until then, you can follow the story at: www.HoldThatMayo.com or Facebook.com/holdthatmayo.
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