Edison Ford Winter Estates to screen four films during 2021 FMFF
At sunset (8:00ish) on Friday, May 14, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates will host the Fort Myers Film Festival, screening four films on the lawn of the Henry Ford Estate. Seated outdoors along the picturesque Caloosahatchee River, guests will watch movies under the stars. The films will include an Edison silent picture, a production about the late Sam Galloway, and two documentaries, Stay Wild and A Greenlander.
The site is one of several locations hosting the Film Festival occurring May 12-16.
The event is fitting since Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera. His first films were silent, but nonetheless groundbreaking, for the time. Guests will get to watch an original Edison silent film, while local musician and film buff Stephen Brittain performs the score.
The second production, A Tribute to Sam Galloway, was produced by Ilene Safron of Main Sail Video Productions and tells the success story of Mr. Galloway and his long history with the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.
Directed by Lizzy Fowler, Stay Wild is a 16-minute story about Melissa Wilson – a young woman who moved to St. John, one of America’s most wild places. With more than half of the island conserved as a national park, the beauty of the landscape inspired a solution for the climate change within the American West. After graduating from Harvard University in Sustainability, her thesis continues to foster hope for wild places and wild people.
Nicholas Jones’ A Greenlander is a 37-minute documentary. It follows Pierre Auzias, a French painter fully integrated in Uummaanaq, a settlement 450 miles north of the arctic circle in Greenland. Pierre speaks Greenlandic, travels by dog sled and teaches art therapy to neglected children.
Strayhorn & Persons Attorneys and Counsellors at Law is the event sponsor. Refreshments will be available for purchase. Only a limited number of chairs will be provided, so guests are encouraged to bring a folding chair. Tickets are $10 for Edison Ford members, $15 for non-members and may be purchased at EdisonFord.org.
Edison and Ford Winter Estates is the internationally known winter home site of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. More than 220,000 visitors walk through the location each year from all around the globe.
The organization has received many awards, including the National Stewardship Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Garden Clubs’ Historic Preservation Award.
The property is an official project of “Save America’s Treasures,” a Florida Historic Landmark and a National Register Historic Site. The Edison Botanic Laboratory is a National Historic Chemical Landmark. The site is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and until 9:00 p.m. during the month of December for Holiday Nights.
May 1, 2021.