Dr. Lisa Mills, SVAD assoc. professor of Film and Dr. Robert Cassanello, CAH assoc. professor of History, co-directed The Committee, as part of a 2011 Advanced Documentary workshop they taught for students at the UCF Burnett Honors College. “The students who made this film were a very special group. Their dedication to the project has led to its success…and to their own individual successes as they work in film producing, cinematography, journalism, and other professions beyond graduation from UCF,” says Mills.
The full title of the film project is: Florida’s Purge: The Johns Committee Witch Hunt which was first screened at UCF’s Morgridge International Reading Room and has since went on to receive numerous awards such as “Best of Competition” for the Broadcast Educators Association Festival of Media Arts, and “Best Documentary” at the Love Your Shorts Film Festival in Sanford. It was also shown at the Durban Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in South Africa, where it won the International Jury Award for Best Documentary. Mills says, “It is extremely gratifying that an audience on the other side of the world recognizes the importance of the story that this film reveals.”
Jose Fernandez, Dean CAH, adds that “This international award along with other awards are indicative of the quality of faculty and students in our College.”
Cassanello points out that, “The Committee gives us a glimpse into a time on Florida’s public universities when discrimination and civil rights were treated with little regard by state legislators, civic officers and university officials.” The documentary covers the highly controversial Florida Legislative Johns Committee of the late fifties, early sixties which investigated and fired scores of Florida educators based on their sexual orientation. Byron Clercx, Director SVAD, feels this famous cautionary statement is made ever more poignant by this parcel of our history: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
-The Life of Reason, George Santayana
The Committee will be on view at the Orlando Museum of Art from August 7th from 6-9pm as part of the museum’s “Art in Equality” First Thursday event.
For more about the inception of The Committee project please visit:
http://www.riches.cah.ucf.edu/committee/about.php Read More