Our Past

Citizen Wumpus has its roots in Polywumpus Improv Comedy, a Philadelphia based improv group that performed in and around Philadelphia from 1996 through 2002. Once Polywumpus ended, five members banded together to create Citizen Wumpus.

The five members consisted of an IT administrator, a music student, a graphic designer, an office worker, and a public speaker. Not a single one of them had any formal film experience, but they knew that this is what they wanted to do.

Two of the driving mantras of Polywumpus were 'leap before you look,' and 'make the trouble worse.' Taking these two sayings to heart, Citizen Wumpus committed to participating in the 48 Hour Film Project in Philadelphia in March of 2003.

The 48 Hour Film Project combines film and video production in a festival-like setting. The premise? Filmmaking teams have just one weekend to make a short film. Each filmmaker must select the genre for his/her movie in a random drawing 15 minutes before the start of the competition. In the past, genres have included: film noir, comedy, horror, romance, mystery, and superhero, to name a few. In addition, all teams are given a character, prop and line of dialogue that must appear in each film. All creativity, writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack had to occur within the 48 hour window.

When asked about how he planned on making a movie in 48 hours with no experience, no crew, and no equipment, Avish Parashar, who submitted the application, said, "I had no idea. But I figured once we committed, we would figure it out."

And figure it out they did, creating the 10-minute mockumentary, Eugene Elliott. "That was a turning point for Citizen Wumpus", says co-founder Mike Worth. "Realizing that we could make a movie that had 300 people howling with laughter when we didn't really have any experience motivated all of us to want to keep doing this and get better."

The group continues to make their own shorts, and most recently produced But What if You Could? an 8 minute short made for the National Film Challenge.

"The movie's concept is about asking yourself but what if you could? when you're uncertain about taking a risk", says co-founder Terrence Ryan. "Without setting out to, we made a film that pretty much embodies the Citizen Wumpus mentality."