Call for Submissions – Flickering Landscapes: Florida’s Landscape, History, and Identity on the Screen

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The Flickering Landscapes conference aims to bring together scholars working on the history and present of the film and screen experience of Florida and in Florida. Any form of screen experience relating to Florida is of interest – cinema, television, government and industry promotional film, training film, anthropological film, tourist experience video, home movies and non-professional video. Three key areas will be explored:

  1. Landscape: How is Florida’s unique landscape and look created and explored on screen? There are many different Floridas, and one key aspect of this area is understand the contrasts and contradictions in the way space and place influence the state’s depiction in film. Unlike secondary film locations, which function as substitutes for other locales, Florida is able to attract filmmakers for its landscape alone. As a result of this distinction, the region has a far greater degree of agency over how it is depicted on film than anywhere else in the United States.
  2. History:  Florida has a unique place in the history of American film, stretching back to the beginning of film itself. This history begins with the arrival of the first New York-based filmmakers in Jacksonville during the 1910s in search of a “Winter Film Capital,” and continues into South Florida’s boom-bust cycle during the 2010s. As the State of Florida came of age, so did the motion picture industry. Without question Florida’s connection with this industry has made an indelible mark on the state’s development. Studying Florida’s long production history provides many fascinating insights into the capricious nature of the motion picture industry. A major component of this conference will focus on how different regions throughout the state attempted to function as a “Hollywood East” of sorts, and examine why in each instance Florida came up short.
  3. Identity: Questions relating to what should be defined as “Floridian” on film will be examined. Aspects of Floridian identity can take many forms and most often are made through a variety of cliché characterizations. In understanding the differences between how Floridians view themselves and non-Floridians depict the state on film, a better understanding of how regional identities are established can be realized.

This conference is geared both toward academics from a broad range of disciplines and industry professionals alike. The goal of this project being to initiate an ongoing dialogue on the dimensions of how Florida sees itself and is seen by the rest of the country through the lens of popular culture. Some possible topics might include:

  • The relationship between Florida and the motion picture industry in
    • Jacksonville in the Silent Era
    • The Race films of Richard Norman Studios
    • The Gulf Coast Land Boom of the 1930s
    • Exploitation films at Wakulla and Silver Springs, 1950s-1960s
    • The “Hollywood East Movement” in Orlando, 1989-2000
    • South Florida television productions 1984-2010
  • The preservation of Florida film heritage sites.
  • From “Crackers to Cocaine Cowboys” archetypes of Florida-based characters on screen.
  • “Florida as the Promised Land:” Escapist films set in Florida or have Florida as the destination.
  • “Florida as a Backdrop:” Set design, Architecture, Still Images, Landscape.
  • Tax incentives and the economics of Florida filmmaking.
  • “Tin Can Tourism to Theme Parks:” Florida depicted as a vacation destination.
  • LGBTQ representations in Florida-set films.
  • “Paradise Lost and Found:” Beach, Swamps, Lakes, and Forests – Florida Ecology on Film.
  • Ethnographic and anthropological film
  • Non-commercial Florida on screen: corporate, government, and tourism films
  • The place of Florida in relation to other “secondary” film locations, (i.e. Wilmington, NC, Vancouver, BC, Toronto, ON, Dallas, TX, Pittsburg, PA, etc.)
  • The future of Florida’s film and television industry.

Submissions are invited for individual papers and panels or workshops. For papers, please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words. For panels, please send the abstracts together with a 200-word note on the title and topic of the panel or workshop. Also include in your message a short biographical note and your C.V. All submissions must be sent to: flickeringlandscape@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2015.