By: Dwana Pinchock, Marketing & Public Relations Manager
When the Dauphin County Library System recently hosted a screening of the award-winning documentary Unlikely Mermaid, audiences arrived expecting a charming story about mermaids.
They left talking about courage.
The film follows filmmaker Lorraine Portman and her friend Margaret “Peggy” Nicholson, a Harrisburg-area native, as they travel to Florida’s famous Weeki Wachee Springs to audition as mermaid performers.
The premise is whimsical: Two women, ages 60 and 79, decide to pursue a dream most people would dismiss as impossible.
What unfolds is funny, surprising, and deeply moving.
Prior to the screening, I had the opportunity to speak with both Portman and Nicholson about the film, the friendship at its center, and the message they hope audiences will carry with them.
Again and again, the conversation returned to one idea:
Don’t let age, expectations, or fear decide what is possible.
Portman explained that while the film begins with mermaids, it quickly becomes about something much larger.
“We shouldn’t let other people’s ideas about us, or our own negative ideas about ourselves, stop us from trying something new,” she said.
For Nicholson, who graduated from Central Dauphin High School in 1961, the adventure never felt out of reach.
“So what if I’m 79?” she recalled thinking when the opportunity arose.
That attitude may be one reason audiences connect so strongly with the film.
Many of us carry dreams we have quietly placed on a shelf. We tell ourselves we’re too busy, too old, too inexperienced, or simply too late.
Unlikely Mermaid challenges those assumptions.
“Why are your dreams at 80 different than your dreams at 20?” Nicholson asked during our conversation. “Your dreams are just as important when you’re older as when you’re young.”
The film also offers a beautiful portrait of inter-generational friendship.
Portman and Nicholson met through a writing group years ago and discovered that their shared adventure strengthened an already meaningful bond. Training together, traveling together, and encouraging one another became as important as the audition itself.
Their friendship serves as a reminder that community often begins with something simple: a shared interest, a conversation, or a local gathering.
In fact, Portman noted that she and Nicholson first met at a community event, much like the programs and activities that bring people together at The Library every day.
Perhaps that is why the film felt so at home in a library setting.
Libraries are places where people discover new interests, meet new friends, and explore possibilities they may never have considered before. Whether learning a skill, joining a discussion group, attending a program, or picking up a book that changes your perspective, libraries invite us to remain curious.
That spirit is at the heart of Unlikely Mermaid.
When asked what she hopes audiences take away from the film, Portman offered a simple answer:
“That it’s never too late. That trying new things is worth it.”
Or, as she put it in three memorable words:
“Dive right in!”
Those words may be the film’s most powerful message for us all.