‘Florida Project’ director to speak at Rollins College
Sean Baker, director of “The Florida Project,” will be featured at Rollins College next week. The Winter Park Institute will present Baker at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Bush Auditorium.
The evening is called “Sean Baker: A Conversation With an American Filmmaker.” Public broadcaster 90.7 WMFE has partnered with the institute on the
2018⁄2019 speaker series at Rollins. Tickets for Baker cost $25. Baker also directed “Four Letter Words” (2000), “Take Out” (2004), “Prince of Broadway” (2008), “Starlet” (2012) and “Tangerine” (2015).
But “The Florida Project,” which filmed in Central Florida, was a breakthrough for Baker when it was released in 2017. He won the best director prize from the New York Film Critics Circle.
“There are characteristics of Central Florida you don’t see anywhere else. It’s quite beautiful,” Baker told me in 2017. “I found the location to be just exquisite, giving us so much eye candy, the colors that you get.”
The movie focuses on children living in cheap motels near Walt Disney World, and the central figure is 6-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince of Winter Springs). The film combines the children’s humorous escapades with shattering drama about being homeless.
“I was trying to put a human face on this issue, so that the stigma is removed,” Baker told me, “and audiences will hopefully be moved enough to look into their own communities.”
Willem Dafoe was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a concerned hotel manager.