Calling all filmmakers

We may be in the midst of the Brooklyn Film Festival, but here's the word about the Brooklyn Girl Film Festival.

The new film festival focuses, naturally, on films by women, and is seeking entries for a premiere in March of next year.

According to the release we got, the goal of the new event is to "showcase the work of [female] filmmakers around the globe. From serious documentaries to light-hearted comedies, Brooklyn Girl Film Festival seeks to empower women and their unique and relevant interpretation of the world around them and strengthen the community of [female] filmmakers."

So if you might be the next Sophia Coppola, send your feature, documentary, short, animation or experimental film — which much feature a woman as director, writer, producer or lead animator — by Aug. 1 through Withoutabox. Entry fees are $55 for feature films and $30 for shorts.

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Calling all artists

Small Works for Change is throwing an art fundraiser — for a cause of your choice.

The group's collecting small, donated, two-dimensional art that would then be sold for $25, with all proceeds going to one of eight charities, including Japan Red Cross, that is of the artist's choosing.

The artwork will be on sale at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene on May 21.

For interested participants, art work must be 8"X10" or smaller. You can drop the piece off at participating businesses in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill area, including a piece of paper that includes:

Name

Date

Title (optional)

Personal Info you care to share (age, profession. residency, website, etc.)

E-mail (for office use only)

You can also mail your piece and this info to:

79 Clifton Place, #5C

Brooklyn, NY 11238

For more info, email smallworksforchange@gmail.com.  

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Calling all rejected New Yorker writers

By Meredith Deliso

Roald Dahl. James Salter. J.D. Salinger.

What do these writers all have in common? At one point, they were all rejected by the New Yorker.

And if you were, too, then Halyards has the event for you.

The Gowanus bar is launching “The New Yorker Rejects,” a reading series comprised of stories rejected by the hoity-toity magazine.

“Misery loves company,” said Beth Kuster (pictured, with a New Yorker), a freelance writer who runs the series with Halyards owner Edward Colley (and yes, for the record, has been rejected by the New Yorker). “Creation is a very solitary thing, so Edward wanted to create a bar where people who create can have a community.”

Halyards certainly hopes to cater to such a crowd, what with the obscure whiskies and the manual typewriter. But a literary bar needs a literary series.

Kuster wants to begin on April 27, but first, she needs submissions. Any story officially rejected from the New Yorker will be considered — but please, nothing too depressing.

“We don’t want anything that’s a downer or a buzz kill,” said Kuster. “Only light-hearted stories. I’m sure there are tons in this area. It’s such a writerly neighborhood.”

Halyards [406 Third Ave. between Fifth and Sixth streets in Gowanus, (718) 532-8787]. To be considered for the series, email your story to beth.halyards@gmail.com with the subject line, “My New Yorker Reject is attached.”

Photo by Tom Callan

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Calling all bakers

Make a mean birthday cake?


Fairway is sponsoring a Best Birthday Cake in Brooklyn Contest in June and is looking for both professional and non-professional bakers to participate. 


You can sign up here by May 20 to compete, no fee required.


The best birthday cake we ever had was a rainbow cake, so if you make something like that, you'd have our vote.


Not that we're voting - the creations will be judged by Sarah Black, bakery director for Fairway, Matt Lewis from Baked on Van Brunt Street, and Lauri Ditunno from "Cake Alchemy." Winners get a prize, as well as, of course, bragging rights. 


It all goes down on June 11 at 5 pm in the waterfront park behind Ikea in Red Hook. So you have plenty of time to get baking.

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Calling all muralists

We got this e-mail earlier today, calling for designs for a Saint Felix Street mural:

 

Residents of Saint Felix Street, in association with Crunch Gym, have recently launched a community art project on the blank wall of the Crunch building next to 62 Saint Felix Street. We have established the "Saint Felix Street Mural Project" and launched a submission-based design competition. The competition is open to artists of all ages and will promote themes of community wellness while encouraging block beautification and art in everyday life. 

The submission process recently opened, and the design due date is April 1, 2011. The selected design will be announced in May, and installation is planned to begin this summer. Further submission details and copies of the design application are available on the Mural Project website at www.sfsmuralproject.org. 

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Calling all Bay Ridge photographers

The Bay Ridge Community Council is holding a photo contest. Amateurs only, please. And entrants must live, work or attend school in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights or Fort Hamilton, or be a member of a Council organization.

 

Contest levels are student (grades five through 12, and adult.

Here are the particulars:

Only one print per entrant

Size: Students – any size; Adults – 4 x 6, or larger

On back of photo print:

Name, address, phone number, email, date and location of photo and contest level  (if student - school name and grade)

Mail entry to: 

Bay Ridge Community Council 

Photo contest c/o McLaughlin and Sons

9620 Third Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11209

Entries must be received by March 1

Award ceremony March 22

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Calling all comic book artists

The Brick Theater is putting out a call for applications for its Comic Book Theater Festival.

Superheroes, space opera, true romance, hijinks, history, literature, autobiography, lines, dots, shapes, pencil, sound, ink, movement wanted.

From the release:

The Brick Theater, Inc. is now accepting applications for the Comic Book Theater Festival. For more information and to apply to be part of the June 2011 festival visit www.bricktheater.com/comics. The deadline for all submissions is February 15, 2011.

The influence of comics on our culture continues to grow. From the pop fantasias of Hollywood blockbusters to the rawness and refinement of intimate memoirs – and everything in between – it’s impossible to deny the wide appeal of comics’ words and images. The theater, of course, is no less immune to its spell. This summer, The Brick will invite one of history’s newest art forms to meet one of its oldest – and, through collaborations between visual and dramatic artists, the form and content of comics will collide with the content and form of theater to create strange new hybrids across both mediums. Also, superheroes and stuff. 

Every show that applies to be part of the festival is encouraged to create some sort of alliance between comic artists and theater artists. Ideally, each show will have a “staged” component, presented in front of a live audience, and a “printed” component, to be absorbed separately, either on paper or online. In order to foster collaboration and give artists a forum to meet and share ideas, a Facebook page has been set up at facebook.com/comicbooktheaterfestival. 

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Artists wanted

By Michelle Manetti

The search is on for the Next Great Wine Bottle Artist.

But this is not some Bravo reality show — it’s an actual contest by the Williamsburg-based winery, Brooklyn Oenology, which has made a name for itself with its great wine and its great labels.

“Since we’re based in Brooklyn. I wanted the winery to be more than just wine,” said owner Ali Shaper (pictured). “And one of the great things about Brooklyn is being around all these artistic endeavors.”

The challenge? A 2010 Sauvignon Blanc. It’s dry. It’s crisp. It’s got a hint of citrus. It’s crying out for something classy, Shaper said.

Any artist endeavor will be considered for the label — except the winner must be based in Brooklyn and the label can’t feature nudity (well, there goes our entry).

“But it doesn’t have to be related to Brooklyn, just original,” Shaper said.

The deadline is Jan. 31, after which the Brooklyn Oenology staff will choose five or six finalists. Customers at Shaper’s new Tasting Room on Wythe Avenue will pick the winner from those finalists.

In hosting a contest, Shaper’s approach to branding is vastly different from her neighbors. Brooklyn Brewery, after all, hired internationally known graphic designer Milton Glaser to do its “B” logo (and Glaser is working with a former Brewery co-founder on labels for a new line of spirits).

Glaser, of course, was richly compensated, but Shaper may be offering something far better than cash: The winning label — which peels off so that it can live on long after the last glass has been downed — will be on a top notch wine distributed all over the country (and you know how those French chateaux are always hiring away our best wine bottle artists, so there could be a big payday down the road).

Plus, Shaper will hang the winning artist’s other work in a solo art show at the Tasting Room.

Brooklyn Oenology Tasting Room [209 Wythe Ave. between N. Third and N. Fourth streets in Williamsburg, (718) 599-1259]. Submissions must include a bio, and a web link, and be sent to sally@brooklynoenology.com by Jan. 31. For info, visit brooklynoenology.com.

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Calling all Williamsburgers

nbART is seeking participants in a new storytelling project by musician Nick Yulman.

Click on the flier below for information on the project, and how you can get involved.

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Calling all artists!

The North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition is looking for Brooklyn-based sound artists for its latest project, nbAUDIO 2011. Artists are invited to propose an original sound installation that addresses the historical, social, and political atmosphere of North Brooklyn’s community.

Additionally, artists are to identify a site in Williambsurg, Greenpoint or Bushwick, in which the piece would be installed.

The deadline for applications is Monday, Aug. 30, and the selected artist will be notified on Sept. 15.

For more information, visit www.nbpac.wordpress.com.

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You - yes you! - could be 'Miss G Train'

The City Reliquary is looking for the
next
first "Miss G Train."

The pageant coincides fittingly with the museum's current exhibition of the old “Miss Subways” contests.

Why the G train? Well, the museum is located near the Metropolitan Avenue stop on the line. And, at only four cars and the only line to not go into Manhattan, the train is much charmed and maligned, and the City Reliquary embraces the unsung histories and quirky collections of New York.

Heeding the call to compete? The pageant will be open to New Yorkers of all ages and genders (calling all Mr. G Trains too, then).

To vie for your chance to rep the G, submit a photograph of yourself, along with a 200-word essay about the G train and why you wish to be its ambassador, to missgtrain@cityreliquary.org by Nov. 16.

Indeed open to all, on Nov. 19, all participants will have the chance to participate in the pageant, to be held at the City Reliquary (370 Metropolitan Ave.), from 8 to 10 p.m., complete with sashes and celebrity judges.

Brooklynites, start working on those essays now. We wouldn't want someone from Manhattan to win, would we?

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