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Yes, it does sound like it could be a biography of the founder and editor of Legsville.com, but NO!  Legs and Cigarettes is a documentary short film, directed and produced by Legsville contributor Veronica Vigil that’s screening on Monday, June 19 in competition at TAFFNY, The Americas Film Festival of New York.

Veronica’s documentary is described as “a deep and intimate conversation with photographer Robert Whitman, on one of his most iconic and provocative collections, ‘Legs and Cigarettes.’ A beautiful studio in Tribeca, a male photographer, a female producer and the lack of political correctness, are the main ingredients of this modern experiment with NYC as its background.”

Whitman is a provocateur, whose career kicked off in a big way in Minneapolis in 1977, when he was invited to photograph a young local musician who was recording his first album. The musician’s manager hoped to use the photos in a brochure to help the nineteen-year-old get a record deal. The musician was Prince.

Veronica Vigil is a journalist, filmmaker, writer and editor based in New York City. She’s contributed some memorable video documentary shorts for Legsville, including a feature on the original manuscript of A Christmas Carol and one of the best features ever on rock ‘n’ roll photographer Bob Gruen.

A native of Spain, where she’s had much success, Veronica has a master’s degree in cinematography from the Madrid Film School and has been nominated for the 2011 Goya Awards (Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain), directed and produced  many documentaries for the History Channel and TVE, distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment and screened in the Doc NYC Film Festival and Havana NYC Film Festival.

The tenth edition of the festival “represents the rich diversity of the cultures, languages and stories of North America, Central America, and South America along with their associated islands.” A cultural initiative of The City College of New York’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education (City College Downtown), TAFFNY is presenting eight feature films and more than thirty shorts, celebrating the rich diversity of the stories, languages and cultures of the Americas. All events are FREE and open to the public, and all foreign language films are subtitled in English. It opens tonight, Thursday, June 15.

Legs and Cigarettes will screen as at 6:30 pm on Monday, June 19 at the Instituto Cervantes New York at 221 E 49th Street in Manhattan. Again… all  the screenings are FREE and open to the public.  More info at TAFFNY.com.

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