The festival will be be held immediately before the fifth annual Stache Pag on March 30, 2012 and the film selection committee must receive all film submissions by March 24, 2012. This festival is open to film makers the world over. The finalists will have their 8 minute or less films shown and judged at the festival. The winner will be chosen and awarded a cash prize.

“This is an important moment in moustache history,” says Dr. Jacobs. “Never has there been a film festival dedicated to the unique art of filming the mustached male (or female). The American Mustache Institute would like to congratulate the IMFF for it’s efforts to preserve the mustached arts.”

Film categories include: Best Foreign Moustache Film, Best Growth Story, Best Collection of Moustaches in One Film and Best Fake Moustache Movie.  The beneficiaries of the festival and 5th Annual Stache Pag will be Northeast Historic Film, MENSK and Mystache Fights Cancer.

For more information, watch the video below or visit Stachepag.com.

Walt Disney, Mustached American

The new policy takes effect Feb. 3 and eliminates a facial-hair ban that has for decades been a source of grumbling among some of the company’s male theme-park workers, as well as the broader facial hair community.

“The discriminatory hand of a company that was ironically founded by a Mustached American — Walt Disney himself — has just been set aside,” said Dr. Abraham Jonas Froman, chief executive officer of the American Mustache Institute. “We’re proud that we could stand up for our brothers in facial hair.”

As an initial demonstration of good faith in negotiations, the company began inching back from its ban on facial hair in 2000, when it finally decided to allow mustaches.  Disney’s new policy restricts any facial hair to no more than a quarter of an inch in length. And the company says any chin whiskers “must create an overall neat, polished and professional look” and must be fully grown in and well-groomed.

Ironically, the rigid code was instituted in 1955 by Walt Disney himself, a self-loathing Mustached American who felt the need to distinguish his theme park from what he called “filthy carnies.”

While publicly Disney said it finally relented on beards in response to requests from its employees, or “cast members,” AMI’s Dr. Froman and other members of the organization’s staff and administration had been meeting with Disney officials for the past few months finishing off an agreement that was long-coming.

“Disney Look guides are periodically reviewed, given the unique environment of our theme parks and resorts,” Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said. “While we’re careful to maintain our heritage and the integrity of our brand, a recent review of our guidelines led to a decision that an update was appropriate at this time.”

Disney doesn’t tinker with its look lightly: Changes are typically made only after the company has studied similar guidelines at other theme parks and Fortune 500 companies. The last major change occurred two years ago, when the company finally allowed female workers to forego wearing panty hose when wearing skirts — a rule that had been particularly uncomfortable for women working outside on steamy summer days in Central Florida.

Carry on.

What are you lookin' at?

Today, ironically on the birthday of one of the greatest Mustached Americans in history, AMI chairman Dr. Aaron Perlut appeared on KTVI FOX-2 in St. Louis to further discuss the inherent power of the lower nose sweater and what can be expected from Fisher’s reign in the shadow of the world’s largest mustache — the Gateway Arch.

To see the video, click on the photo below.

Dr. King was many things, most notably the most influential civil rights leader in American history.  But as the American Mustache Institute’s Dr. Aaron Perlut told The Atlantic Magazine, Dr. King was also one of the most influential Mustached Americans in history.

Indeed, it’s been well documented that the 1970s was the glory decade for Mustached Americana, as all U.S. men had three things: a perm, a turtleneck, and a mustache. But white America abandoned the lip sweater as a facial hair accoutrement and fashion element after 1981, while black America did not.  And this was largely because the most influential leader in black America up until that point was Dr. King, who of course wore a mustache for most of his adult life until his murder on April 4, 1968.

So in honor of MLK Day and Dr. King’s contributions to the free facial hair movement, AMI visited a meeting of the largest Pentecostal denomination in the U.S. — the Church of God In Christ — to examine the popularity of facial hair within the black community in America.

But it is not, as St. Louis finished a mere 40th in the American Mustache Institute’s first “America’s Most Mustache Friendly City” analysis.

Power couple Kroenke and Fisher

But the Mustached American Jeff Fisher’s arrival as the new head coach of the St. Louis Rams may provide a jumping off point for better times.

Fisher joins team owner and fellow Mustached American Stan Kroenke to create a formidable power couple of immense lower nose foliage not seen since Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter shared a meal at an upstate New York Burger Chef in 1987.

“I think it sets a unique precedent,” said Dr. Dan Callahan, the American Mustache Institute’s director of research. “It’s rare enough to see one person of Mustached American descent leading a well know organization unrelated to the Arkansas penal system. But to have both a Mustached American owner and chief executive takes things to a new level, whether we are looking at professional football or business as a whole.”

Rare indeed, and the impact sets the table for a few key questions:

1. In past posts we have outlined the performance enhancing abilities of the nasal forestry unit in sports. So it is not presumptuous to assume the new Mustached American leadership of the Rams will restore the franchise to its rightful place as an annual playoff contender. But we still must ask the question: Will the on field product be stronger?
2. As a mustache improves good looks by 38 percent, has the “ugly quotient” at Rams Park just dramatically dropped?
3. And, will St. Louis once again become Mustache Town?

Three important questions, the answers of which history would lead us to believe should be answered in the affirmative.

So it would seem this power couple will indeed reinvigorate not only football in the shadow of the world’s largest mustache, but bring St. Louis back to its right place as a Mustache Town.

Carry on.

Dating Montage by smithy00101

Hogan’s success in film, of course, is matched by only celluloid greats like Paul Newman and Herve Villechaize, with epic roles in vehicles like “Santa With Muscles” and “McCinsey’s Island.”

“I’m getting ready to go on some auditions,” he told TMZ.  “I’m getting ready to shave my head and my mustache. So that should be scary …”

When asked for comment, AMI’s Dr. Aaron Perlut was in shock.

“Mr. Hogan is seen as a longtime leading figure in the sexually dynamic Mustached American community,” he said. “Not only would the removal of his lower nose foliage cause angels in heaven to die and fall to earth — as is written in biblical texts — but it would send a poor message to young people of Mustached American descent who wish to embrace the Mustached American experience. We do hope that Mr. Hogan, for whom we have great reverence, reconsiders shaving his upper lip shading device as millions of those he has inspired would be greatly let down, leading to mass chaos and deep bouts of depression in the Mustached American community.”