Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see this biopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman:

Million Dollar Mermaid, 1952
dir. Mervyn Le Roy, 1h 55m, G
with Dr Jennifer Kokai

After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.

The screening will be preceded by short interview with Dr Jennifer Kokai by writer and curator of The Mermaid Chronicles Megan Dunn.

Dr Jennifer Kokai is an award-winning educator, playwright, scholar, and Director of School of Theatre and Dance, at University of South Florida. As a scholar, Kokai is recognized internationally for her work on tourism and performance, with a focus on themed and immersive entertainments. In 2017, she published the well-reviewed monograph Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature with Southern Illinois University press, and in 2019 co-edited the anthology, Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience: The Tourist as Actor.

This is the second in our Sirens of the Silver Screen film series running every second Wednesday in November alongside Megan Dunn: The Mermaid Chronicles. These films celebrate, play with and reference the mermaid in popular culture and mythology. Each film will be prefaced by a conversation conducted between Megan Dunn and a special guest. Films screened with thanks to Aro Video.

Watch: Megan Dunn interviews Dr Jennifer Kokai author of Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles & the Performance of Race, Gender & Nature