The many faces of Florida

By Times staff

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 8, 2001

Films in search of screens Documentary filmmaking is booming, but distribution lags. One festival's powerful films stirred emotion and enthusiasm among viewers, but these tiny gems may never reach a wider audience.

Four films screened at the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival are set in Florida. Here's a roundup:

Gibtown -- Director Melissa Shachat visited Gibsonton and immersed herself in its community of circus and carnival people, including the 3-foot-tall woman who married the giant and the woman with the two-headed cow (now stuffed and in storage). What's remarkable about all these "freaks" is how normal, how utterly human, they are. It will screen at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando, which runs June 8-17.

Mule Skinner Blues -- Beanie Andrew, living in a mobile home park in Mayport, near Jacksonville, thinks he's talented and wants to make a horror movie with the help of his friends, whom he also considers gifted. The film, by Stephen Earnhart, is advertised as a "testament to the vitality ... of an oft-neglected portion of our population." You be the judge. It is scheduled to screen next month at the Florida Film Festival.

Pieces -- The worst thing that can happen to a rescue worker, a detective says in this film about the aftermath of the 1996 ValuJet crash, is that he or she will get "psychologically tagged" -- that is, emotionally involved. Still, the workers interviewed here sometimes do get involved, as when one finds a teddy bear just like one belonging to his son. No word on when it might show again.

Soldiers in the Army of God -- Filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson penetrated the far-right fringe of the anti-abortion movement, whose members don't quite advocate killing abortion doctors but don't mind when somebody else does. An unforgettable moment: hearing one man describe using a razor blade to circumcise himself because God told him to. The film has been airing on HBO.

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