Film makers at CIFF 09 - Photo Copyright Norman Blake and Coney Island Film Festival
Congrats to all the awesome filmmakers at the Coney Island Film Fest 2009. It was really fun to screen another of our short films at New York’s mermaid mecca! This year, we premiered a short film about Bambi The Mermaid one of the subjects in our feature film, Mermaids of New York. 
Bambi and Willow on the big screen - Photo Copyright Norman Blake and Coney Island Film Festival
Last night was the Mermaids of New York Benefit Ball at Galapagos in Brooklyn, and what a night it was!
In a word, it was nothing short of totally AWESOME! So many friends helped out to make the event happen and even more came out to support.
MC Kate Tellers kept the night rolling, there were fishy performances by Legs Malone, Bambi The Mermaid and The Brooklyn Babydoll and The Lady Aye showed off a talent that few, if any, fellow filmmakers share. Lavlier played two sets of their unique otherworldly rock stylings and they even treated us to an end of the night, ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ sing-a-long with Steve Milton on keys! Can’t really ask for more… but then there was Ted D’Ottavio hosting a non-stop photo booth, all night. AND we got some great responses from our friends at:
PopCandy “The highlight of the night was a sword-swallowing performance by Ilise Carter (“The Lady Aye”)”
Thanks, again to everyone who attended The Mermaids of New York Benefit Ball and made it an amazing and fun night.
Stay tuned… MORE photos coming soon!
I’ve got to say, I’m pretty pleased with the way Thursday night is shaping up! It is going to be an event you don’t want to miss so if you haven’t purchased your ticket yet, you can do it now online.. right here.
Everyone has been working overtime to get a representative segment of the film ready to share with you. It will be about 10min and includes introductions to four of our mermaid subjects with original music by Lavalier. This will be the first time we get to show it to anyone beyond the production team, so its very exciting and a more than a little nerve-wrecking. However, I am really proud of all the work everyone has done so far and looking forward to getting feedback from a live audience!
Something else to remind you about is the super-duper raffle we put together for Thursday.
In addition to the signed copy of UK edition of The Death of Bunny Munro, Nick Cave’s new book and a framed original print by photographer Thomas Daniel, we also have a gift card for a night out at The Slipper Room, a custom pair of Converse and more! Tickets will be sold at the event for $5 each or 5 for $20.
One thing I have learned about mermaids – they are not lazy! These lady never stop moving, doing, making, talking, singing, dancing etc..
Some recent mermaid news:
Illustration from Dame Darcy's book Gasoline
Dame Darcy keeps a very busy schedule with performances, speaking engagements, commissions and self-publishing her comics! You can pick up copies of her comics and books here. She also makes original prints, drawings, dolls and more artwork all for sale on Etsy.
Weeki Wachee Mermaids Calendar
Bambi The Mermaid and photographer Andrew Brusso, have been getting tons of great press for the 2010 Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaid calendar which they created. Proceeds from the sale of this limited edition calendar goes to help keep the mermaids swimming in the historic Weeki Wachee Springs park. Also congratulations to Bambi, whose dog Mr. Velvet Underpants was wed to Miss Movie Star in a small public ceremony in Brooklyn this past Saturday.
Mara Haseltine never stops moving, traveling the world to speak at conferences, teach courses and create site specific sculptures. We visited her at Governers Island where she had an installation made of thousands of oyster shells (what else!) and gave a talk about urban oyster restoration on the Waterpod. The Guardian UK has a nice interview about her environmental work if you are interested in learning more.
Brooklyn Strip A Go Go photo by By Linda Slater
The Brooklyn Babydoll keeps busy outside of her day job with a full schedule as a pin-up model and go-go dancer and half of the “glamour girl duo for hire” Brooklyn Strip A Go Go (They are available “to wiggle and shake at parties, shows, festivals, or whatever event you are planning that needs a touch of SASS, ASS, and PURE CLASS !” ) There’s lots of events where you can see her this fall, all listed on her MySpace page but you can also catch her performing at the Mermaids of New York fundraiser, this thursday at Galapagos!
Arts Engine is now the fiscal sponsor of Mermaids of New York. We are now officially a zero profit production! Or rather we have a fiscal sponsor who essentially loans us their 501c3 status so that we can take tax deductible donations and do other fun things that non-profit organizations do to raise money (like having a fundraiser at Galapagos Art Space)
Arts Engine is an amazing organization that supports, produces, and distributes independent media projects. They are a fiscal sponsor for many other exciting film projects which you should check out here. We will also be able to accept donations online soon!
Photographer Thomas Daniel has very graciously donated a beautiful framed 20×24 print of his photograph of mermaids in Coney Island, which we will be raffling off at our event at Galapagos, next week! Buy Tickets here!
Mermaids Coney Island #2 by Thomas A. Daniel
Terence has really outdone himself this time! In addition to being an awesome friend and connecting Mermaids of New York with Lavalier in the first place, he has secured signed copy of the U.K. version of Nick Cave’s Bunny Munro audiobook which he worked on as an audio spatialization engineer (sigh! we love T for being such a dreamy geek!).
We will be raffling off the signed copy of Nick Cave’s Bunny Munro at the Mermaids of New York fundraiser, along with many other fabu prizes which I will posting about this week. Buy your ticket now!!!
The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave
Some great press for Bunny Munro:
Tickets are now on sale for the Mermaids of New York Benefit Ball!
First of all, if you have not yet experienced the new Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, that alone should bring you out.The place is bee-you-ti-ful! Unlike any other venue in town, plus they are truly committed to supporting independent artists like us!
Secondly, we have an incredible line up of live performances, Legs Malone will show off that incomparable 34 inch inseam of hers, Brooklyn Babydoll will be on hand to shimmy and shake with borough pride and my partner in film making absurdities, The Lady Aye, will impress you with her unique ability to glamorously stick tools into her face and crack wise at the same time.
Thirdly, Lavalier will be setting the musical score for the night (and our film!). They are one of NYC’s newest, coolest bands, you will not want to miss the chance to hear them live. Plus special guest performance by Shelly “The Singing Siren” Watson!
Finally, we are in the process of putting together some killer raffle prizes which I will post more about soon…
In the meantime you can purchase tickets here. There are three tiers of pricing $15 is general admission, $25 is reserved seating, $150 is Producer’s Circle and gets you not only reserved seating but a Thank You in the finished film!!
I have to say that we are incredibly blessed to have so many generous and talented friends who are helping to make Mermaids of New York a truely collaborative endeavor.
Today’s incredible contribution comes from the lovely and talented illustrator A.V. Phibes, who created a kick-ass logo for our project. We think she really captures the spirit of our film and she is definitely a proud New Yorker!
One question remains… what to name her?! Suggestions?
We just got great news – our profile of Bambi The Mermaid is an official selection of the Coney Island Film Fest 2009!
Last year we brought our film about The Brooklyn Babydoll to CIFF and it was a blast.
You can watch The Brooklyn Babydoll video here:
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