Films by alumni Rich Adler (MA, Media Studies ’08), Jennifer Piazza (MA, Media Studies ’08) and Alexis Neophytides (Documentary Studies ’08), were featured in the Coney Island Film Festival last weekend. Now in its eighth year, the annual festival shows a selection of over a hundred films during its three day run. Film formats include documentary, short film, and avant-garde/experimental work. Proceeds from the festival benefit the nonprofit arts organization Coney Island USA.

Adler and Piazza worked together on the film A Mermaid Cycle, a short experimental piece shot on super-8 film at Coney Island’s annual Mermaid Parade. Set during the parade’s silver anniversary, the film tells the story of, “a mythical creature from the sea finds men, women, children, queers, and mermaids, honoring the sun and sand before they surrender to the swells of an uncertain future.”

Neophytides, who recently completed the one-year graduate documentary studies certificate program, showed the piece she worked on as a student, Coney Island’s for the Birds. The fifteen-minute documentary tells the story of local father-and-son pigeon racing team, Anthony and Larry Martire, as they prepare for and compete in a race.

Both films were screened Sunday, September 28, at 4:00 p.m. in the festival’s Coney Island Films block. For more information on the Coney Island Film Festival and its featured works, please visit their website.