Women’s Mafia host Fundraiser for Ladies Behind Lenses Film Festival, Bookhampton Welcomes Author Silvia Lehrer in Southampton and Art Opening at the Chrysalis Art Gallery on Main Street in Southampton.
(Long Island, N.Y.) On June 8th The Women’s Mafia and the team of creatives at Rocketlight Films and ChickMakesFlicks.com hosted a super-hip, elegant fundraiser for the upcoming Ladies Behind Lenses Film Festival. The event also celebrated my birthday and I was presented with the first annual Women’s Mafia Boldness Award, the first of many awards that will be presented in the Film Festival to women who contribute to high quality film-making, directing, acting, cinematography, writing and more!
Rocketlight Films is a collective of actors, filmmakers and truly creative talented individuals who have collaborated to establish the best in film, comedy, art and culture. Since its inception the original team of three has flourished to include a diverse group of directors, actors and filmmakers.
ChickMakesFlicks.com has a great admiration for women behind the lens of film creating awesome feature films and documentaries. The organization encourages, uplifts and inspires females to create significant films in media.
I had a chance to chat with Nikki Roberts, the founder of Rocketlight Films and ChicMakesFlicks.com.
Talented Nikki Roberts is a director, writer and producer of films, music videos, and web-episodic programming. She is the owner of Rocketlight Films and a filmmaker of collectives operating out of Manhattan and Washington, D.C.
She recently created and co-writes a film-buffs blog, ChickMakesFlicks.com. The blog highlights and interviews the ladies behind the lens that creates waves in media and entertainment. Nikki is also active in the world of fashion profiling designers’ models on runways of the fashion world for popular trends and lifestyle v-logs.
Nikki’s interests include travel, filming, writing, animals, Anthony Bourdain’s snark, and Japanese everything!
To find out more please visit rocketlightfilms.com.
On June 11 Hamptonites came to hear Author Silvia Lehrer to discuss and sign her new publication “Savoring The Hamptons.” The book features the fabulous food and delicious wines of Long Island’s East End’ at the BookHampton Store in Southampton.
The book touches on the topic of the Hamptons possessing an unmistakable and indisputable charm. The Hamptons is rich with local farms and the character of each village has created a remarkable culinary culture among the sand dunes and lighthouses that the East End is famous for.
Savoring the Hamptons is a culinary celebration of this unique community. The book is separated by season to highlight the variety of elements and characteristically rugged charm of the Hamptons. The ensemble of more than 250 recipes is accompanied by stories and photographs of local farmers, wineries, fisherman, artisans, and restaurant owners to establish a Hamptons mosaic. From Starr Boggs in Westhampton Beach and Mecox Bay Dairy in Bridgehampton to Wolfer Estates in Sagaponack and Quail Hill Organic Farm in Amagansett, this is truly an informative cookbook of the Hamptons. There are over 60 collective beautiful stunning full-color food photographs and scenery shots featured.
Recipes in the publication are arranged by season. The cookbook is filled with recipes that incorporate the finest, freshest and most flavorful ingredients available in the Hamptons. Spring and summer dishes use fresh and delicious peas, strawberries and seafood. Autumn and winter focuses on robust savory dishes that include root vegetables and lamb. The author also incorporates recipes from various East End restaurants, such as Luce and Hawkins.
There is a wealth of information about the Hamptons’ culinary scene that may in fact pique the interest of residents and devoted summer vacationers. Readers that are unfamiliar with the East End may feel like they are reading a travel brochure instead of a cookbook. The publication is filled with glossy full-page photos of prepared recipes, ingredients and local businesses and their owners’ interesting stories. Ms. Lehrer has lived in a tiny hamlet in the Hamptons for twenty years. The picturesque landscape is surrounded by water on three sides. Its fertile soil provides the ideal situation for growing vegetables to eat, growing grapes to make wine and raising farm animals that produce milk for making artisanal cheeses.
With all this wonderful abundance of fresh produce, natural cheeses and fine wines comes an assortment of fabulous restaurants that take advantage of the rich resources. Ms. Lehrer has studied cooking at the Cordon Bleu, La Varenne and with such individual masters as Jacques Pepin, Giuliano Bugiali, Sinca Beck, Marcella Hazan and James Beard. She is also the founder of Cooktique, a cooking school hailed by the New York Times as “One of the best and most comprehensive schools in the nation.” Ms. Lehrer is also a contributing writer for Dans Papers.
For more information on purchasing the book please visit www.bookhampton.com.
Some of the reviews include:
Jacques Pépin Famous Chef
The East End of Long Island is very dear to my heart. In SAVORING THE HAMPTONS, Sylvia takes us with enthusiasm and great allure through the seasons with the locavore food and wines of that special spot, paying tribute to the culture, the integrity and the uniqueness of that extraordinary place.
Dan Rattiner, founder and editor-in-chief, Dan’s Papers
In Savoring the Hamptons not only has she captured the beauty and essence of my favorite part of the country, her years’ of experience come alive in the wonderful seasonal recipes that will give you a marvelous taste of the Hamptons.
Brian Halweil, editor of Edible East End, author of Eat Here
Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket. Part love letter to her neighbors, part regional cooking guide, Savoring the Hamptons steers you to the farms, ingredients and dishes that every East End food enthusiast should know.”
Also this weekend Hamptonites enjoyed an Art Opening at the Chrysalis Art Gallery on Main Street in South Hampton.
The gallery featured special works of art by Artists Howard Rose and Betsy Podlach on June 11th.
Howard Rose has been painting with rich oils since 1989. Mr. Rose loves the challenge of turning an everyday scene into a successful and exciting painting. He loves to invent new shapes and colors, incorporating new themes and designs and establishing it viewed and envisioned by art enthusiasts.
For more information please visit www.howardrose.com.
I also had a chance to chat with Artist Betsy Podlach. Betsy Podlach recieved her B.A. in English literature and fiction writing at Harvard University, where she was a Watson Scholar. While studying art at the New York Studio School and the International School of Art in Umbria, Italy, she received awards from the Charles H. Revson Foundation and the Seligman von Simson Foundation as well as several private grants and commissions.
Betsy also was awarded with an MFA in Sculpture 2000 from New York Academy of Art, New York.
Her works of art are about romantic, passionate relationships. They are created through a personal, abstract conception of form, space and light. She reveals “I work from direct observation, the beauty of objects in light, the anatomy or the landscape along with my unconscious. In doing so, I try to combine three-dimensional form and depth with the flat picture plane into a uniquely painted space. I work with color to create a light coming from within the picture, stillness that reverberates. I use nature, these formal principles, and my imagination to form a personal image.”
At the moment Betsy commutes between Brooklyn and the Hamptons. In our interview she revealed how much she truly loves living here on the East End and loves the beaches of the Hamptons. She is also currently represented by galleries in New York, Key West, and Art Cabinet Nantucket on Nantucket Island. Her work is in private collections in New York City and Italy, including the collection of Princess Donatella Borghese in Rome and the corporate collection of Pfizer, Inc., in New York before coming to the Chrysalis Art Gallery.
For more information on Artist Betsy Podlach please visit betsypodlach.com.
