The fest will be held at CEAM on Friday, May 2nd. The opening reception will be from 5:00-6:00pm, after which the student work will be shown starting at 6:00pm and the artist block will begin at 7:00pm. This event is free and open to the public.
The Finger Mullet Film Festival (FMFF) was founded by Flagler College Distinguished Professors of Art professor Patrick Moser and Kevin Mahoney in collaboration with former Director of the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Julie Dickover. The festival is dedicated to nurturing an experimental art and film culture in St. Augustine by providing an inspired platform for the best national and international short films alongside a burgeoning local and regional culture from young artists, film makers, creators and storytellers. Finger Mullet aims to discover, cultivate, and screen new or local narratives to generate critical discussion and empower community collaboration. This year’s festival brings together film and video shorts by regional, national, and international artists and filmmakers, including a screening block dedicated to student work, as well as a special performance by former Flagler professor and Finger Mullet founder, artist and musician Kevin Mahoney.
Patrick Moser works with the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida through after art programming. Their artwork from working with Moser was displayed during the opening of the festival. As he says: “The Kenan endowment has been transformational for me as an artist, teacher, and citizen. I invest the funds in my collaborative work with the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida by providing the kids with material and directional support to grow as young artists. I believe it is crucial for young people to have access and the freedom to explore in a supportive, creative space. I am thankful the Kenan Professorship has empowered me to do this work over the last five years. One facet of FMFF is the exhibition of the artwork from our collaboration over the last year in the CEAM museum.”
The festival schedule is listed below, and a complete list of participants will be listed at www.flagler.edu/ceam and https://fingermulletfilmfestival.com/.
Opening reception: 5:00-6:00pm
Student Block: 6:00pm-7:00pm
Artist block: 7:00pm-8:00pm featuring. . .
Sasha Wortzel is an artist and filmmaker using video, installation, sculpture, sound, and performance to explore how this country’s past and present are inextricably linked through resonant spaces and their hauntings, particularly along shorelines and bodies of water. Partially inspired by Wortzel’s visits to Northeast Florida as a part of the CEAM Artist Residency, Wortzel’s third installment of their sound installation “Dreams of Unknown Islands” was exhibited at Crisp-Ellert in 2023.
Ilana Harris-Babou's work is interdisciplinary; spanning sculpture and installation and grounded in video. She speaks the aspirational language of consumer culture, using humor as a means to digest painful realities. In recent years, Harris-Babou has made artwork that interrogates the consumerism of the wellness industry, carefully balancing incisive critique with comedic levity. Her 2024 exhibition “Golden Thread” at the Crisp-Ellert was comprised of video and sculpture that weaved intimate personal narratives, archival and historical references to breastfeeding with the artist’s customary visual acumen, calling attention to both the empowering and challenging experiences of Black motherhood.
Kevin Mahoney or “Kevin PM” is a singer and songwriter based out of Northeast Florida. His songwriting employs elements of folk, rock, country, and experimental music. His lyrics highlight and showcase overlooked elements of everyday life, whether they be joyful, melancholic, unsettling or absurd. This summer, in addition to touring solo, he will be joined by a four-piece band of old friends and collaborators. This new live sound showcases some of the arrangements and provides new dynamic instrumentation to the songs featured on the two EPs he released in 2020 and 2021. “And Then Forever” and “Fondly” are available on all streaming platforms.
Nicole Antebi is an animator and moving image maker. Her interest in animation grew out of a desire to have more tools for storytelling–specifically in thinking about place-based animism and a curiosity about how vastly different cultures/religions historically and presently imbue place with personhood, sympathetic magic, or animistic qualities forming a foundation of knowledge, belief systems, or in times of crisis a desperate incantation of hope.
John Kelley’s work encounters technology, family, identity, personal darkness and the American South. “Encounter” suggests that the meeting is unexpected, maybe hostile, “like finding a wild animal in a suburban front yard: out-of-place, somehow beautiful and feral.” Kelley is an animator and artist living and working in Knoxville, TN.
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The Finger Mullet Film Festival is supported, in part, through funds from Flagler College. CEAM programming is supported through grants from the Dr. JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council, the St. Johns Cultural Council and voco, an IGH hotel.
The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum is an accessible building. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodation, please contact Phil Pownall at (904) 819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.
For further information on our programming, please visit the website at www.flagler.edu/ceam, or contact interim director Helena Rodriguez at (904) 826-8530 or crispellert@flagler.edu. The museum’s hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 12 to 4 p.m., while classes are in session.
