Sophia and Michael's 2021 in Review | Sophia Cacciola & Michael J. Epstein

2021.Well, it was a lot of lockdown and some brief moments of shooting films, a couple film fests, and a quick visit East.In sadness, our beloved chihuahua that we adopted at the start of the pandemic in 2020, King Ghidorah, passed this year just a few days shy of his first anniversary with us. We didn't stay dogless for long though, and we adopted the senior-chihuahua-mixes Blanche in April (who we had intended to be King's sister, but they ended up just ships passing) and Rose in December. They are our sassy little joys who bring us so much laughter. They share an Instagram, tiktok, and Facebook.

And, like everyone, we watched WAY too many movies - and we're nearly through an entire watch of Murder, She Wrote. You can check out our stats on Michael's letterboxd.

We got back into shooting our new feature film, The Once and Future Smash starring Michael St. Michaels (The Greasy Strangler) and Bill Weeden (Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D). We shot the principle photography in early 2020 and were able to shoot most of the rest - still a few small shoots to go and it's currently in edit. We are hoping to send it out to festivals later this year.

In 1970, Mikey & William both portrayed football cannibal Smash-Mouth in the influential cult hit, End Zone 2. Now, 50 years later, only one can wear the mask.

DARLING PET MONKEY

DPM is a collaboration between Jim McDonough (Friday Night Films) and Launch Over, it had an very successful festival run and was finally released this year. It is a small part of a larger project we hope to complete exploring the stories and experiences of people who bought strange items from the backs of comic books. The true story as narrated by Tim Tate. 1969 Outside of Washington D.C. Two brothers ordered a monkey for $19.95 out of the back of a Monster magazine. Things get weird. Tim's monkey story has been covered on NPR and has been made into a musical.

THE BIG STEEP

A fun one-day shoot around Hollywood with David Whitney.

BLOODHOUND

We made a movie with King Ghidorah, BLOODHOUND about how he is actually Dracula (voiced by Luke de Ayora) trapped in a chihuahua's body and all of the indignities that come with that! Bloodhound was released this year on the Arrow streaming player as chosen by the team behind The Stylist.

2020's Sick ‘n’ Wrong 72-Hour Debacle Film challenge, Murderous Space F************s was released

2021's Sick ‘n’ Wrong 72-Hour Debacle Film challenge, “I thought his name was Blarche” starring Blanche and Sophia was released

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (Sophia's main songwriting project) covered the INXS song "Don't Change" for The April Fifth Project.

The April Fifth Project was created as a day to remember musicians who we've lost to depression/substance abuse/mental illness - celebrated by covering their songs and posting them with these hashtags: #TheAprilFifthProject and #SingTheirSong April 5th was chosen because it's the day we lost both Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Layne Staley of Alice in Chains. We chose "Don't Change" for our cover - we love how it's a dark and dancey song with lyrics about being yourself and entering a relationship with acceptance of each other. The April Fifth Project is the brainchild of musician, Jeffrey Vachon who released a four-song EP of covers for the project.