National Council on Public History

ROBERT CASSANELLO, UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

Proposal Type

Film Screening and Discussion

Seeking

• Seeking General Feedback and Interest

Related Topics

• Oral History
• Place
• Social Justice

Abstract

“Marching Forward” is a film and public history project. This film (60 min) is a window into a moment of the civil rights movement in Orlando Florida as the city was transitioning from an old south outpost to a sunbelt city. It depicts a pivotal event at the segregated Jones High School. That year Jones High School prepared to represent the city at the 1964 New York City World’s Fair and this event was the accumulation of fourteen years of everyday activism on the part of the band director James “Chief” Wilson, the teachers, administrators and parents. What we learned from our oral histories was that racial hostility and activism was just below the surface and as engaged as in other communities, just in a different form.

Description

“Marching Forward” is a film and public history project produced at the University of Central Florida. It is a collaboration between Robert Cassanello a history professor and Lisa Mills a film professor and a joint class they teach titled “History Documentary Workshop” through the Honor’s College at UCF. We would like to screen this film (60 min) followed by a discussion Q&A with the audience.

This film is an example of a film project produced through a community public history project and I think screening this and having a discussion afterward would be engaging to others who contemplate or have produced film/media based public history projects by themselves or with students.

We have a completed cut of the film and have screened at film festivals. We would like to screen for a public history audience to receive feedback as to whether the themes of civil rights and everyday activism are successfully being depicted. We hope to submit this film for national distribution with American Public Television in 2021 so this feedback would be helpful for us to revising elements within the film based on the feedback.

Also having a Q&A after the film would spark an engaging discussion about the content of the film and how those themes might apply to other southern cities in the 1960s. Like many places that are not featured in histories of the civil rights movement, a myth of the “the civil rights movement didn’t happen here” has grown around Orlando. We have heard and read things like “this was not St. Augustine…this was not Birmingham.” And it wasn’t but the movement emerged in a different more subtle way which is what we bring out in this film. We have a feeling that other communities that did not have open confrontation might also fall into those similar myths and narratives and this film could bring a conversation about how to uncover and reinterpret the civil rights history of these cities and towns outside the spotlight.

Additionally, our methods and approaches to interpreting and depicting difficult histories would also come into focus through a discussion after the film. The film is narrated by participants with memories that do not always align with each other or the broader history. We have also worked with a variety of alumni groups and organizations from Jones High School who have helped us with this process.

We would like a chair for this screening to oversee Q&A.

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Robert Cassanello, [email protected]

All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 1, 2019. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion