Miami, March 10, 2016 – The beloved Rewind/Fast Forward Film & Video Festival (REW/FF), first established in the 1990s, is being revived by its creator, the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives (Wolfson Archives) at Miami Dade College (MDC). Free and open to the public, the festival features three days of made-in-Miami movies.
“We’re looking back on Florida’s movie history with this reboot,” said Wolfson Archives Director Rene Ramos. “We want to introduce new audiences and new media makers to the Wolfson Archives’ collections. The film and video in our vault is a rich resource for producers and a great source of fun for audiences.”
REW/FF 2016 opens at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17, with Salesman (1968), an early feature-length work by famed siblings Albert and David Maysles, known for their films Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter and When We Were Kings. The Maysles co-directed Salesman with collaborator Charlotte Zwerin. The black and white film follows bible salesman Paul Brennan and his colleagues, who leave snowy Boston for a sales tour in sunny Miami, where they experience culture shock on several levels. The film will be presented with a “Sunburnt Short,” a film chosen from the Wolfson Archives’ collections.
The Friday, March 18, 7 – 9 p.m. feature is a 1950s Hollywood epic filmed in Florida by a famous director with an eclectic cast. Wind Across the Everglades (1958) pits game warden Walt Murdoch (Christopher Plummer) against a fierce band of bird poachers led by Cottonmouth (Burl Ives). The film was inspired by the true story of Guy Bradley, a Monroe County deputy who was shot to death while trying to arrest a plume hunter in 1905. Other cast members include former stripper/author Gypsy Rose Lee, renowned circus clown Emmett Kelly, writer-actor MacKinlay Kantor and, in his big-screen debut, Columbo star Peter Falk. Director Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without A Cause, In A Lonely Place) was fired during shooting and replaced by screenwriter Schulberg, who also oversaw the film’s editing. The film will be screened with a “Sunburnt Short” featuring unique footage of the film in production, chosen from the Wolfson Archives’ collections.
At noon on Saturday, March 19, Gulliver’s Travels (1939), a full-length animated feature produced entirely in Miami, will be screened. Based on Jonathan Swift’s satire, Gulliver’s Travels was produced by the Fleischer Brothers’ animation studio, creators of such classic animated characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and the big screen’s first version of Superman. The film was produced at the Fleischer’s studio located at 1701 N.W. 30 Ave., Miami. Built in 1938, the studio still stands and now serves as the City of Miami Police Department’s Grapeland Heights Substation. Gulliver’s Travels will be preceded by a brief talk on the Fleischer studio and the films produced there by Wolfson Archives staffer Kevin Wynn.
Also on Saturday, March 19, from 2 – 4, the festival will host “The Miami Moving Picture Meetup,” an informal gathering where film fans and history buffs can get together to share ideas and enthusiasms and find out about the Wolfson Archives and its collections. The meetup will take place at the MDC Wolfson Campus Auditorium foyer and lobby. Light refreshments will be served.
Rewind/Fast Forward 2016’s Closing Event from 4 – 6 on Saturday, March 19, is a celebration of Analog Art, “Six On 16: South Florida Film Artists 1970s-1990s.” Presented in 16mm, “Six On 16” is a diverse survey of 16mm films created by six South Florida artists from the late 1970s through the late 1990s, curated by Barron Sherer, artist and principal at Obsolete Media Miami.
All screenings will take place at MDC Wolfson Campus Auditorium (Room 1261). Free parking for the festival is available at Building 7, located at N.E. Second Avenue and N.E. Fifth Street. The Wolfson Campus is also readily accessible to Metrorail and Metromover and is served by several County bus routes.
The Rewind/Fast Forward Film & Video Festival is presented with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
The renowned Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at MDC is an official moving image repository and archives of the State of Florida and is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the United States.
For more information, please contact Wolfson Archives director Rene Ramos at 305-237-7731, or rramos@mdc.edu.