The Staten Island ladies from Ferry Tales joined forces once more to attend the highly anticipated preview screening & kick-off party for the Reel NY Film Festival produced by Thirteen (WNET) on June 27, at the Two Boots Theater. We were so honored to be included in a film festival that's about New Yorkers, by New Yorkers! All these films I mentioned are a part of the Reel NY FF and can be seen from July 5 to August 30 on Thirteen (WNET), Thursdays at 10 pm.

Making It Happen VIP PICS: (Top left) Reel NY Producer/Curator Duana C. Butler. (Top right) Reel NY Host: Rebecca Carroll. (Mid-left) Rebecca Carroll, Director/Producer of Ferry Tales, Katja Esson and Reel NY Executive Producer, John DeNatale. (Mid-right) Katja Esson and Ferry Tales Producer, Corinna Sager. (Bottom left) Rashad and (Ferry Tale Diva, Valerie Campbell-Spady and Duana Butler (Bottom right) Valerie Campbell-Spady and channel Thirteen Senior Producer, James Nicoloro.

Ok, now for the good stuff! Sharing the spotlight with Ferry Tales on July 5, is Bicycle Messengers, by Joshua Frankel (5mins) BICYCLE MESSENGERS is a short film in which all of the messengers are animated and all of the backgrounds and environments are live-action footage shot in Midtown Manhattan. By juxtaposing the animated characters on top of the live action, the film highlights the peculiar relationship between bicycle messengers and the modern city in which they operate. YOU'LL LOVE IT (Josh Frankel, right)

Next is Native New Yorker (see image below), filmed with a 1924 hand-crank Cine-Kodak camera, Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' takes a journey which transcends time, from Inwood Park (where the island was traded for beads and booze), down a native trail (now 'Broadway'), into lower Manhattan (sacred burial ground, now including the newest natives of this island empire). 'Native New Yorker' took several years of filming, with a present running length of 13 minutes. This is a film by Steve Bilich with an original score composed by William Susman - Airing July 19.

Photo credits to come.

Please see Death of Two Sons, airing August 2. The intertwined life stories of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant shot 41 times by the NYPD, and Jesse Thyne, a Peace Corps volunteer who lived and worked in Amadou's village in West Africa and died tragically within the same year. (Micah Shaffer, 1:04 min).

ImageNation's Executive Producer, Greogory Gates and Founder/Executive Director, Moikgantsi Kgama with Producer of Death of Two Sons, Alrick Brown. Also check out ImageNation's website at www.imagenation.us.

The film Rubber Soles, by Christine Turner (above left) will air August 23, and is about young love that blossoms on the basketball court when a young boy tries to impress a girl with a nice jump shot.

MORE PICS FROM THE PARTY!!!

(Top) Kamillah Hanks and Dana Walker (Ferry Tales), Katja Esson, Corinna Sager and John DeNatale. (Bottom) James Nicoloro and Kajta Esson. Kamillah Hanks and (BFF) Corinna Sager.

Ciao - Watch the series http://www.thirteen.org/reelny/calendar.html! This is what happens when Ferry Tales is in the mix - we bring it!

Hugs & Kisses from Staten Island.

(1) Designing Hollywood Honoree, Hair Stylist, Michelle Johnson & her daughter with NYWIFT Board President, Carey Graeber. (2) Honoree, Make-up Artist, Toy Van Lierop and Desiging Hollywood Presentor, Actor Thandie Newton. (3) NYWIFT Board Member, Michelle Materre and Designing Hollywood Honoree, Costume Designer, Sharen Davis. (4) Rachel Lyon, Chris Straayer, Antonia Lant and Executive Director, Terry Lawler (Right).

I met Carey Graeber, President of New York Women of Film & Television (NYWIFT) at a screening of Katja's short film, A Season of Madness. She encouraged me to come to their mixer in the city to meet some of the other members in the organization. There I met Michelle Materre and I was convinced this was a group I wanted to be a part of. I'm very proud to say that I was accepted as a member in May 2007!!!

These photos are from Designing Hollywood 2007. This was a truly amazing experience for me! Designing Hollywood is NYWIFT's annual fundraising event that explores the confluence of fashion, film, and television. Created in 2000 to honor women's outstanding contributions in the fields of costume design and make-up artistry, it is the highlight of the spring.

RULE #1: NEVER TAKE A PHOTO WITH A WOMAN THAT'S A SIZE ZERO. (Left) Kamillah Hanks and Thandie Newton (Right)...How U Doin?!!!!

About NYWIFT
New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) is a nonprofit membership organization for professional women in film, television and new media. A champion of women's rights, achievements and points of view in the film and television industry, NYWIFT is an educational forum for media professionals, and a network for the exchange of information and resources. NYWIFT brings together more than 1,500 professionals including EMMY and Academy Award® winners, who work in all areas of the entertainment industry - above and below the line. It is part of a network of 40 international women in film chapters, representing more than 10,000 members worldwide.

For more information or to become a member go to: www.nywift.org

Channel Thirteen is Celebrating Independents! Reel New York Film Festival kicks off the Summer with 29 independent Films and Videos by New Yorkers about New York. And of course I am mentioning this because Ferry Tales was chosen to be a part of the preview screening of the first episode this week at the Gotham Center! If you haven't seen Ferry Tales, here's your chance! The 8-week festival airs on Thursday nights at 10pm from July 5th - August 20, 2007. For more information visit www.thirteen.org/reelny.

For a preview screening of the Reel New York Film Festival:
Where:
Recital Hall
Gotham Center for New York City History/CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street
www.gothamcenter.org
When:
Thursday, June 14th @ 6:30pm
Free Admission!!!

*****

Featured Works:

BICYCLE MESSENGERS (5m)
(Dir:Joshua Frankel) Animated and live action footage provides a glimpse
into the world of New York City bicycle messengers.

FERRY TALES (40m)
(Dir: Katja Esson) This Academy Award(r)-nominated documentary short
exposes the secret world that exists in the powder room of the Staten
Island Ferry.

CABBIE VOICES (5:45m)
(Dir: Shravan Vidyarthi) A snapshot of the fascinating people in the
driver's seat of New York City taxis.

Also, check out the video promo for this upcoming season, by visiting
the Reel New York site at www.thirteen.org/reelny.

Wow, I'm like reading all these deep and interesting blogs on AOL True Stories and I've come to the conclusion I have the most depthless, superficial content going. Butcha know what? People dig my celebrity picture dropping skills...even Peter Bogdanovich would approve! And yes, he loved us.

Holla atcha girl - I've been gone for some time, but I bring gifts from the Florida Film Festival held in Orlando - March 23 - April 1, 2007. Katja and I made the pilgrimage back to where it all started for Ferry Tales four years ago - the FFF was the first film festival FerryTales got into. The best part about our little trip was that we got to see FTD Rachel, who moved to the Sunshine State about two years ago. Martina, the FT DP was in Tampa shooting a film and surprised us by driving two hours to see Katja's latest narrative short, A Season of Madness - which was the reason we were in Florida in the first place. So our first night together began telling tales of our respective insane lifestyles and whatnot. We did our best to lay out our festival strategies, what films looked interesting, who we would like to meet, etc.

The first film we saw was Swedish Auto with Lukas Haas and January Jones, directed by Derek Sieg. All I can say is, I really liked the film and the director was really cute. However, the greatest part of this screening was that after it was all over and the director got up to do the Q&A , an old woman raised her hand, stood up and asked if the actors in the film were actually fixing the cars or were they just acting. It was only brought to her attention because she's been a mechanic...a Swedish auto mechanic for about 30 years. With the exception of Kajta and I dying in the audience, there was absolute silence.

Katja, Rachel and Derek Seig, director of Swedish Auto

My friend Ann Marie is the managing the 14th Annual NY Underground Film Festival again this year! And I hear their having an awesome program - The 'theme' this year has turned into a bloody/lizzie borden hospital. Lars von Trier would be proud! I'm trying to help get the word out to people who might be interested in attending. Please check out the website www.nyuff.com. Kick off Party - Sat March 24th @ Julep in E.Village. DATES Festival runs Wednesday, March 28 to Tuesday, April 3. "Closing Night" is Sunday, April 1st (no fooling!) and the two final days are repeat screenings for those of you who just can't get enyuff!! FESTIVAL LOCATION All screenings are at our beloved Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. at Second Street. Many thanks and happy spring!!!

Here we are with Lisa Gay Hamilton in Los Angeles, California. She was at the IDA Film Festival showing her film Beah, A Black Woman Speaks. It was fantastic! That night we all hit this club called The Conga Room - if you are ever in LA, definitely check out that spot!

If you have never been to a film festival, Go! You can't imagine how many interesting people and wonderful films that are out there to see! Filmmakers put their blood, sweat and tears into their projects - and often they are just happy to be there just like you! Here is a photo of Anika Poitier, me, Sydney Poitier and Sabine Hoffman (Editor of Ferry Tales) where we met at Palm Springs Film Festival in Jan. 04. The Poitier sisters were screening their new Rock You, Mock You, documentary film, The Devil Cats.

I can't tell what an honor it was to meet Sidney Poitier - he was very kind and sincere. I was like yeah, I'm like here because uh, I was in this, uh documentary about..uh chicks on the ferry and they like put makeup on. He just smiled and accepted I was retarded and on medication. He told me "That's great, amazing!" That was such a highlight for me.

We became used to Katja popping into the ladies room film to film us in as we went about our daily ritual of foundation, lip gloss and gossip. Sometimes we would step it up a notch and then watch as Katja and her camerawoman looked at each other in disbelief and say something in German that we know meant WTF?. Katja joked with me later that she can't believe she was actually worried that we might not open up in front camera...In late July filming began and we had no choice but to trust Katja and see this through until the end. We had nothing to lose. Valerie kept us motivated with dreams of fame and fortune because she was never afraid to verbalize what we all secretly hoped for. She made Ferry Tales pop ya'll!!

Ferry Tales allowed me to travel the and talk about the secret society of Ferry divas in Staten Island . After the film was gaining momentum on the festival circuit Katja surprised us all with a trip to Los Angeles at the IDA Film Festival. She was telling us that this was a very important festival, blah, blah, blah - man, all we heard was that we were going somewhere for an extended period of time without our husbands or children... what? It was so on. We tried our best to look sad when our families kissed us goodbye at the airport. As soon as the plane took off, we were cheering and ordering drinks. When we got to our hotel (in Beverly Hills - holla) we decided to head out looking for a bar...on foot...at 10:00pm...in Beverly Hills ....two white and three black women. Needless to say in 10 minutes we were stopped by a police officer who kindly reminded us that this was NOT NYC and YOU DONT WALK in LA and ALL the bars were closed. You live and learn. The gas station on the corner took debit cards, so beer and cigarettes were back on the menu - that was our diet for the duration of the trip. I have never in my life had that much fun. We talked, laughed, argued and bonded - it was so great! But just like getting off the ferry, when you return to your normal life of 'work', 'what's for dinner', homework, 'where's my socks hon' and little kisses filled with love and boogers, you laugh and create yet another category for yourself.

When I first decided to make a film about the Powder Room of the Staten Island Ferry - what I had in mind was a cross between "Cinderella" and the movie "Working Girl".
Only after I spent some time with these amazing women, did I realize that there is much, much more to the room!

I 'scouted' the Powder Room, by taking the Staten Island Ferry very early in the morning over to the Staten Island side in order to be on the 8:15 am ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan....

I thought I was subtle, I went into the room, checked out the vibe and the women, pretended I would use the toilet and slowly left – I thought I was so nifty....!

(Later, the women told me that every time I left they would turn to each other and say:" Who is that weird woman?" Because I did not know about the "RULES" - I broke two of them:

1. Never use the toilet, it's just for show
2. Don't come in here with no make-up
....

I was on maternity leave with my fourth child when I actually got the call. Valerie Campbell was on the other line telling me we were going to be stars. That was absolutely the first thing that came out of her mouth. "Yo, this German chick came into the bathroom this morning and wants to do a movie about us!" "We're gonna be famous!"

That's how it started, the phone call that began our journey. I hung up the phone, thought for a minute and dialed the phone number Val gave me. I left a message on the voicemail of a woman named Katja Esson at Penelope Pictures. The only thing I can remember saying is "You cannot do this film without me!"

And with that, I hung up thinking only two things – What the hell am I going to say to my husband, and Val is right...this is it.

Oscar night 2004. We were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Left to Right - Valerie, Elizabeth, Kamillah, Irma, Rachel and Justine

Even today when I mention that I was in a film about women who get on the Staten Island Ferry to put makeup on every morning, and that it was written, directed and produced by German women, and oh yeah, it eventually went on to get nominated for an Oscar... People stare and wait for me to say "Just kidding" and when it doesn't happen, they're like, "Really?"

It never gets old.

Director, Katja Esson

I hope you enjoy the film! Thank you AOL True Stories!!