The following article is taken from the latest edition of the “Monitor”, newsletter from the excellent grassroots environmental organization Florida Defenders of the Environment, Inc. (P.O. Box 357086 Gainesville, Florida 32635
floridadefenders www.fladefenders.org Phone: (352)-231-9436).
The fact that the Ocklawaha River remains contained by Rodman dam is a travesty to nature that should have been rectified decades ago.
OSFR appreciates the Florida Defenders of the Environment and and also the Felburn Foundation for the good work they do for our water.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
FDE Documentary, “Ocklawaha: Tales My father Told,” Begins Production, Receives $10K Felburn Grant
By Steve Robitaille
Production has begun on the FDE documentary, “Ocklawaha: Tales My Father Told,” based on the symphony by the same name composed by John Gottsch.
The symphony premiered at the New World Center on January 23rd, 2023, where it was video-taped by the 15-camera New World Video production department. FDE raised $22,000 to pay for this state-of-art, PBS quality recording. The film is an impressionist dreamscape based on composer’s childhood memories exploring the Ocklawaha as a young child when the river was free and undammed.
The symphony is composed of vignettes and recollections which will be intercut with footage of the symphony premiere performance. At campfire scenes the father shares tales from the history of human habitation of the river, Native American and black settlers, who, like river they loved, were once free. The composer returns to the river as a college student and encounters the dam and in later life he was inspired to create this symphony, a story that moves from innocence to experience.
FDE President and Emmy-Award winning documentary filmmaker is the Executive Director/Writer-Producer. He is working with two of the Florida’s most accomplished filmmakers.
Mark Emery is an Ocklawaha based wildlife filmmaker. His most recent film, A Silver River Story recounts the history of Silver Springs and its venerable Black glass-bottom boat captains.
Dan Bramm served as writer/cinematographer on Robitaille’s Emmy Award winning Expedition Florida series produced for the Florida Museum of Natural History. Production of the documentary will continue into the fall and plans are underway for a Key West screening in January and statewide distribution on the Florida Public Television Broadcast Service.
FDE is also developing a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) curriculum for elementary schools in the Great Riverway region that will introduce students to the river’s unique ecological, historical and cultural features.
i live in Pensacola Florida. I am, and have been interested in the whole issue of removing the Rodman Dam since I went to college in Gainesville in the seventies. That this dam still stands despite all of the logic to remove it, baffles me. I would like to make a donation directly to the film being made about the Oclawaha. Can I do this? I wish I lived closer so I could be more involved.
This seems like a pretty cool concept. I worked for FWC (then GFC) on the Ocklawaha in the early 1990s and frequently encountered a retired USGS employee who fished the river above Eureka. He told me that he was working on a guide to all of the former steamboat landings, one of them being Davenport Landing where there was a huge “Indian” mound. I don’t think he ever published the guide.