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Check it outBy MARGO HAMMOND © St. Petersburg Times, published January 7, 2001 SOME FLORIDA HISTORY: Gary Mormino, University of South Florida historian and author of The Immigrant World of Ybor City, and Polk County native Canter Brown, Jr., author of Tampa Before the Civil War, were among the advisers behind Inventing Florida, a documentary that traces the transformation of Florida from a Wild West frontier and slave-owning state to a land of mega resorts and overdevelopment. The documentary airs today at 5:30 p.m. on WEDU and 7 p.m. on WUSF. Seated at the Plant Museum at the University of Tampa and in a log cabin at the Heritage Park Village in Largo, Mormino and Canter appear on screen, talking about Florida crackers, the two Henrys (Plant and Flagler) and other Florida characters throughout the 90-minute film. The documentary, shot in a style reminiscent of Ken Burns' Civil War series, covers an impressive amount of history involving the black, white and Hispanic denizens of the Sunshine State from 1840 to the present. But one group from the state is noticeably absent: the Seminoles. That was a deliberate choice by the documentary's producer/director, Larry Goldin, who is based in Anchorage, Alaska. Although the Seminoles' history is rich and deserves to be told, says Goldin, they were not part of the documentary's intriguing thesis: Modern Florida is a state that was virtually invented by politicians and developers. Goldin says he is prepared for the complaint, though. He's already heard it from his wife. She is an American Indian.
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From the Times Opinion page |
