For more than 125 years, Florida has inspired authors and filmmakers to tell stories set in Florida. In the early 1900s, Florida was a filmmaking capital, producing hundreds of silent films before anyone had even heard of Hollywood. Some of Hollywood’s later hits were often inspired by Florida stories, but not always filmed in the Sunshine State.
Florida filmmaking’s greatest tales are revealed in filmmaker and professor Frank Eberling’s two-part lecture on Florida and the movies. Part One covers 1898 to 1970, and Part Two covers 1970 to the present. (The two parts should be scheduled as two separate lectures.) Prof. Eberling is an experienced public speaker who made his first of hundreds of films in Florida in 1962.