Florida Man
You can learn a lot about life from the man on the street, especially if that street resides within one of the countless small towns that populate the quirky state of Florida. In his new documentary Florida Man, director Sean Dunne approaches a variety of colorful characters that one might pass on a daily basis without notice. Dunne notices, though, and he forces us to as well. In the process, he uncovers a series of surprising, eccentric and boisterous perspectives on what it means to survive in America today.
Dunne captures each of his fascinating subjects in the comforts of their natural habitats outside of bars, liquor stores, laundromats, dingy apartments and motel rooms. They're all here; the barroom brawlers, midnight philosophers, rugged retirees living the dream of beach side leisure, homeless vets, and sidewalk drunks. In their own unique ways, they are all preachers of the street gospel.
Some express the realities of their existence through an endless stream of soulful proselytizing. Others stand and face the camera in silent stoicism; the particulars of their individual struggles remain elusive, yet they're inherent in every crease that lines their faces like life maps.
"I just love Florida, man," boasts one resident who enjoys the sandy beaches and sunsets from his trailer. "There's my second home - ACE Liquor Store," admits another interview subject who spends his days and nights just trying to avoid conflict with the police.
Some are residents of the state. Others have migrated there from vastly different regions of the country. We intuit that each of them must have a fascinating story to share about where they came from, and the cards that life dealt them along the way. For the most part, Dunne teases us with only morsels from their life journeys, and invites the viewer to fill in the blanks for themselves.
After all, the characters that truly stay with you are the ones you're desperate to know more about. What Dunne does provide are the building blocks to an environment which many of us fail to consider while we rest comfortably in our securely defined circles. It's a big world out there, and even the man on the street has much to teach us.
At 22:40, there's sumpin' ya don't see everyday, pigeon-toed kata.
America.
Glorfying violence and not having the ability to acknowledge the disease.
its hillarious to see the denial in the american snotty idiots commenting here
eh the director did not create this - HE JUST FILMED IT
No matter how snotty the americans act this is the 90% of the population deal with it and stop pretending you are better than everyone with your fake snotty accents
Europe has always had a much better educational system , culture from the renaissance , languages, opera , ballet etc
WHAT DID AMERICA CREATE OH YEAH ROBBING THE INDIANS AND RAPING THE NEGROS
AND BOMBING INTERNATIONAL COUNTRIES
WELL DONE
I have lived on the beach for all my life (64 years). The young man that says local cops will incarcerate you to generate revenue is correct. However, the preferred detainees are tourists with bank accounts. Some Florida municipalities will buy one-way bus tickets for overly-incarcerated homeless people. Society's outcasts live in all 50 states. Florida is nevertheless, a magnet to street people. The majority of men in this video are not from Florida. So, the title should be 'Non-Native Florida' Man.
I loved this film!!! Watched it twice. Told two friends to watch it. I get it....some people are just to ****** and should pass this one up.
This is a film which interviews a collection of drunks in Florida.
I now live in a beautiful northern climate surrounded by hardworking, gracious people. From now on when anyone wonders aloud why I didn't want to stay in Florida (I was born and raised there, left when I was 19) I will recommend this documentary to save my breath..and because it's great!
When you're feeling like a loser and you're totally depressed over it, watch this film, and you will feel better after.
For those of you who have never been homeless sleeping in the street, it takes a lot of loss in life to end up there. I think the director wanted to film Florida because the homeless are attracted to the nicer weather, while by contrast, people go there for toursim. Businesses complain about the homeless problem and want to sweep it uner the rug. Take compassion. Life isn't about money and things, its about people- even if they think differently than me.
What a cruel and disgusting documentary. My condolences to the director for his sad nihilism. If there were any encouraging moments here, they were purposely twisted into something disgusting. This is probably the only documentary I've ever seen that turned poverty into something no longer human.
Stupid documentary...capturing the dim intelligence of our species in graphic fashion.
Not to mention hopelessly alcoholic, addicted, sick, or mentally ill. But even the average people are portrayed as psychos.
Is this an anti-tourist video? It sure encourages me to stay away from Florida.
For the most part, these people are good hearted....Their lives took a turn somewhere, but they're basically just good old boys....
This is REAL. For those complaining about sample size, they are missing the point. THIS is a great sampling of real Florida, i.e. not middle or upper class Fla.
What crap! Why not make something positive and uplifting instead of focusing on these degenerate, low-life, abnormal exceptions? You bring us all down by presenting these unfortunate stories as commonplace. A total waste of time.
Why did you watch it?
great documentary, not highly rated as most folks prefer to watch fake fluff, commercial mind numbing programs over real life real people
Uuugh you mean reality TV?
I too, prefer docos about real life subjects over fake fluff, but I (& I suspect a large portion of humanity as well) have had quite enough reality TV.
The trouble is that there can be a fine line between something like this & what we call reality TV shows.
I spent almost two decades in Florida. While this is a good sampling of the worst of the worst of people that are literally just like that in Florida and even in the Tampa Bay area some are just like that. The key word being "SOME." Not all Floridians aren't like that. Most aren't. I could shoot video of scum in any county in this country. Not just in Florida.
someones getn defensive :)
Defensive of what? I don't care one way or another about Florida but I tell the truth how I feel. I didn't say I currently live there (I don't, moved away in 2013) nor did I say the average person in Florida was of average intelligence. My point is, you could shoot video of people much like these people ANYWHERE and it would be interchangeable with these people. What is Florida about it? A few mannerisms? The accent? One of my customers in St. Petersburg was a $975K a year CEO of a major global company based in St. Petersburg and he shared some of the accent and mannerisms as these folks. I could hand pick videos of people in ANY culture of ANY color that look and sound a certain way on camera and paint the picture any way I like. Make them look however I see fit. Just my opinion. I don't need to hear how you were only joking but if you honestly have something to say of any substance, feel free to reply.
why do you feel the need to defend these people..or scum as you referred to them? omg you mean there are uneducated less well off people EVERYWHERE in the world??? that may be ground breaking for some I'll give you that but it really is just common sense for anyone with a modicum of education and minimum awareness. My point of substance was that no one said anything to the contrary, now re-read my initial comment.
Wow, you have NOTHING worthwhile to do with your time, do you?
so my time spent commenting = I have nothing better to do but your time commenting = you have plenty of other worthwhile stuff to do...keep shining :)
Oooh I'll have to get out my deck chair & popcorn for this...
Thoroughly agreed - I think the common factor here is 'humanity'.
I don't think they are telling the truth.