One house, eight strangers and a few surprises. "This ... is their story."

Sound familiar?

With his "mockumentary" Public Interest, Penn State alumnus Brad Robinson creates a film that "attacks the absurdity and excess of reality television."

Robinson will hold a free screening of his soon-to-be-finished film at 3 p.m. Sunday in Carnegie Cinema.

After the film is played, audience members will be asked to answer a short anonymous questionnaire and then will have the opportunity for a Q&A session with Robinson and his co-producer and fellow Penn State alumnus Corey Peterson.

Robinson graduated in 2000 with a degree in Film and Media Studies. He was planning on attending this year's film festival as a member of the Lion Film and Video Guild to be a part of the alumni panel discussion, and thought it would be a good opportunity to see how viewers react to his film.

"What's a better place to do this than the place you learned to do this?" he said.

Robinson said the story idea came to him in 2000, and he began shooting the film in June 2005.

Since they finished shooting in January, they have been "editing hardcore," he said.

As a student at Penn State, he said that one of his professors helped him immensely.

He said Film/Video and Media Studies Professor Rod Bingaman was not only his teacher but has also become one of his best friends. Robinson said Bingaman helped him with the filming of Public Interest.

"Brad is one of the most driven people I have ever met," Bingaman said. "Even in school, he was obsessed with getting better and learning all the time."

Robinson said he has spent almost three years of his life working on Public Interest and that getting close to the end is a weird feeling.

He added that the overall experience has been a roller coaster.

"There are days I completely love it, and it's the best thing I've ever done," he said.

"And there are days I hate it and I feel like I've wasted the last three years of my life. It's about balancing out the good days and bad days."