This is the website of Penny Lane, maker of things. The kind of things you might like, if you like that kind of thing.

06/19/09 LESSONS IN THE SKY
The Commoners premiered a few days ago at "Lessons in the Sky: A Filmic Tribute to Audubon," curated by Andrea Grover and hosted by the Dia Art Foundation outdoors under the stars (such as they are, in New York City) at the site of John James Audubon's former farm. It was a beautiful program at a beautiful place. Some pictures of the event here and here. Some of my favorite work in the program was by Julia Oldham, Nina Katchadourian, Emily Kuehn and Guy Ben-Ner.

06/08/09 THE COMMONERS
I told you I'd have a new movie in June. It's done! If you'd like a DVD (with ultra-fancy 5.1 sound courtesy of Sir Jesse Stiles, cazique of De Ruyter) email me.

04/24/09 MOST BADASS
Sittin' on a Million received the "Most Badass" Award at the Iowa City Documentary Film Festival this month. Very honored! Wish I could have been there. From the judges' statement: "your dip into the minds of the elderly about the overtly sexual subject matter made us smile and recognize the importance of remembering (or maybe even imagining) more risqué moments of history."

04/09/09 MAKING MOVIES
Working away at three new movies, wishing I was done with at least one of them so I could show you. Give me until June, okay? I'll see what I can do.

02/25/09 A MISCELLANY OF UPDATES (NOW SPONSORED BY "CORPORATE WATER")
Lots of April screenings: Images Festival(Men Seeking Women, April 2-11, Toronto), Wisconsin Film Festival (She used to see him most weekends, April 2-5, Madison) Anthology Film Archives (Sittin' on a Million, April 14, NYC), Experiments in Cinema v4.2 (Men Seeking Women, April 17, Albuquerque), Iowa City Documentary Film Festival (Sittin' on a Million, April 11, Iowa City). New favorite filmmakers: Jim Trainor, Brian Springer, Su Friedrich, Jennifer Montgomery. More new movies on new subjects: starlings, Lydia Pinkham, Central Park, Christian Science, the cosmos, Lynn Massachusetts. Enjoying life, looking forward to spring!

02/02/09 TURN AND FACE THE... STRAIN?
I moved to New York City. Come and find me there...

01/13/09 HOGTOWN, HERE I COME!
The good people over at FLEX have programmed She used to see him most weekends and Sittin' on a Million. Excited to check out the program and tour Gainesville (home of Gatorade and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, oh my) for the first time. The festival is February 20-26. Sunshine!

01/06/09 NEW MOVIE NEW MOVIE NEWS
I've been travelling around Kansas and (soon) Texas doing archival research, location shooting and general planning for the new movie, tentatively called The Life of a Man. This will be my first feature length documentary and it's about the preposterous life of Dr. John R. Brinkley. I've started fundraising and writing and couldn't be happier with how well it's all going. I'm shooting on HDV, using lots of archival film images and making lots of animations... more firsts. Here's to firsts of all kinds in 2009!

01/01/09 RESOLUTIONS
Other than the obvious ones (have you ever been to a gym in early January? total madhouse), my resolution is to do more things for the first time in 2009. I'm very happy and comfortable so maybe I have room for a little more risk taking. Happy new year!

11/09/08 CUCALORUS 14 THIS WEEKEND
Off to Wilmington NC this Friday for the last 2 days of Cucalorus. Showing Sittin' on a Million Saturday morning. Good times in the "First in Flight" state. If you're in NYC check out the WOMEN BEHIND THE LENS program at Anthology this Tuesday. Oh!!! And I've started a new movie. Maybe I'll even tell you about it. Maybe then I won't shut up about it, either.

10/19/08 THE ABORTION DIARIES
...received a nice shoutout in Jennifer Baumgardner's fantastic new book Abortion & Life. Which reminded me that Grayson Dempsey and the fine folks at Backline wrote a really excellent discussion guide for the movie, which is totally worth checking out. The movie, which I released in the fall of 2005 and stopped actively promoting over 2 years ago, is really still alive out there in the world. What more could I want?

10/10/08 THE SANCTUARY FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA
I am one (of many!) volunteers who make this thing happen in Troy. Part microcinema, part media access facility, part performance venue, part art gallery, part production studio, part gigantic living room (there's usually a pot of coffee on and there's actually a bed in the basement that I've slept in), it's just a place I like to go. Sometimes I program movies there, like this or this. And the world premiere of The Abortion Diaries happened right there (my MFA thesis show) in the very first season of events! Please check out the Sanctuary if you are ever in Troy; you will be impressed. And then you'll feel a sudden and urgent need to contribute!

09/14/08 NEWS-Y TYPE THINGS
Sittin' on a Million is re-airing on WMHT Oct 2, this time at 7:30pm (which required the removal of a few choice lines about particular sex acts to fit FCC fregulations for this time slot). It will also be showing at video_dumbo (NYC premiere!) Sept 27-28 and FilmColumbia (Chatham NY) Oct 17. The Wren is showing at Proctor's in Schenectady this Friday night as part of the ever-amazing C. Ryder Cooley's aprawling Animalia exhibition, and then at Anthology Film Archives on Nov 11. In other news, I have started my new exciting gig at Williams College, am eager to get back to the art-making thing (I took the summer off for brain re-organization, birdwatching, travel and income-generating freelance work), and am thinking about buying a house (!!!).

08/15/08 MAME FAYE ESSAY
I was invited to write a short essay for On The Issues magazine about Mame Faye. This month's issue is about prostitution & sex work and there are lots of interesting things up there. I think Mame is an interesting, if offbeat, addition to the topic. (What I initially wrote ended up being waaay too long for the magazine -- but you can read the pre-chopped-in-half version here if you like).

08/12/08 JUST SAYIN' HI
Hi. Uneventful summer, as fas as "internet updates" go!

07/01/08 YAY
I am just happy.

06/16/08 MAME FAYE FINALLY GETS HER DUE
Well, after 2 sold out shows and a last minute encore matinee screening, I'd say that we gave Mame Faye quite a weekend of celebration. The local news media freaking loved it, although not always for the reasons I would prefer. I think that Danielle Furfaro wrote the best article about the movie that I've seen yet. After I've gotten lots of sleep, I'll hopefully be more able to strategize ways to use the movie to provoke more radical discourse and less nostalgic titillation. But for now, no complaints from me as I bask (*actually basking!) in the success of this two-year project.

06/14/08 THE ABORTION DIARIES
It is pretty cool to be included on this list.

06/10/08 NEW DVD FOR SALE
The Sittin' on a Million DVD is very beautiful. Extra special love/thanks to Thom Stylinski for his excellent graphic design.

05/19/08 MISC SUMMER UPDATES
I am trying to cultivate my birdwatching hobby this summer. The Wren is about a bird, and it will be showing on EyeAm this July. Sittin' on a Million will be aired on WMHT (local PBS affiliate) this summer. I've just been hired as editor for A Steady Grind, directed by Victoria Kereszi. I am moving into a new apartment just next to Washington Park, one of only two privately owned urban ornamental parks in the United States (the other one is Gramercy). And finally... will I see you at Flaherty?

04/19/08 SITTIN' ON A MILLION PREMIERE JUNE 14 IN TROY!!!
Oh man it's finally true... as I write this Jesse Stiles is mastering the sound for Sittin' on a Million. You know what that means? IT MEANS IT'S DONE! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee. So, June 14 is the funtimes Troy premiere of this long-awaited documentary about Troy's most famous madam. DVDs are available for sale now.

04/11/08 I LOVE THEM IN TORONTO
She used to see him most weekends got a nice review in a Toronto newspaper during the amazing Images Festival last week.

03/27/08 ATHENS OHIO & FUTURE PLANS, PART TWO
She used to see him most weekends, The Wren and Men Seeking Women are screening at the 35th Athens International Film & Video Festival April 25-May 1. Athens, OH was once designated the alternate Capital City of Ohio in the event that Columbus was wiped out by a Soviet nuclear strike. Unrelatedly, I will be teaching video at Williams College next year, so I'll finally be back to living in Troy full time -- this time with a sweet commute through the Berkshires. Come visit!

02/27/08 ABORTION IN POP CULTURE, PEOPLE
A cool blog post about my abortion stories timeline project. Cindy Cooper even called my writing "snappy." Awww... shucks.

02/27/08 PHILADELPHIA & FUTURE PLANS
She used to see him most weekends is screening at the Black Lily Film & Music Festival May 1-4 in Philly. Also, I'm sad to report that I'll be leaving Hampshire at the end of this semester. We'll see what comes next for me. Yikes? Yay? Yeah!

02/17/08 THEY LOVE ME IN TORONTO, ALSO
She used to see him most weekends is screening at the Female Eye Film Festival on March 29 and Images Festival on April 7.

12/27/07 THEY LOVE ME IN NORTH CAROLINA
She used to see him most weekends is screening at the Carolina Film and Video Festival in Greensboro NC. The festival is Feb 20-23. Did you know that the Venus flytrap is the official Carnivorous Plant of North Carolina?

12/20/07 SITTIN' ON A MILLION UPDATE
Sittin' on a Million is screening a couple of times in January... sneak preview of the movie in whatever almost-hopefully-almost-done state it's in. I'll be showing it at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn and Time and Space Limited in Hudson NY. Super awesome bonus: Jesse Stiles is playing music too! He promises banjos.

09/29/07 CUCALORUS
She used to see him most weekends and Men Seeking Women are showing at Cucalorus 13 (Nov 7-10) in Wilmington NC. I'll be there! Cucalorus is way fun & the program looks really good this year.

09/03/07 BLIP.TV CHANNEL
I've put up most of my videos on Blip.TV here. Blip, unlike YouTube, neither imposes bizarrely restrictive ownership rules nor sticks their logo on my videos. I dig the player also; it's kinda classy. Thanks to Andrew Lynn for the tip on Blip.

09/03/07 NEW DVD AVAILABLE
I put together a DVD of my short videos (2002-2007) called Movies about searching for. I initially made it for my friend Rich Pell but then I thought other people would like to see it too. Want a copy? Lemme know.

09/02/07 UPCOMING SCREENING
She used to see him most weekends on EyeAm, Episode 12 9:30-10:30pm
Time Warner #34/ RCN #82 (in Manhattan) & streaming live at Manhattan Neighborhood Network.

08/15/07 SCREENING
The Sittin' on a Million rough cut screening at The Sanctuary for Independent Media was amazing!! Over 150 people came out and we sold about 40 advance copies of the DVD. It was a completely enthusiastic and supportive crowd. See awesome pictures here. The movie should be done in January and I am planning a wicked awesome tour in collaboration with Specific Recordings of Troy, NY. Pre-order a DVD here! And stay tuned for tour plans!

06/10/07 YAY FOR FUNDING
Annmarie and I received two grants recently to support the completion of Sittin' on a Million, a documentary which tells the sometimes-true story of Mame Faye, a world famous madam from Troy, NY. Super psyched to get this movie done - this winter sometime... we think! Thanks to the LEF Moving Image Fund and the Experimental Television Center for their support. This summer will be mostly devoted to this movie. Oh my.