2017 American indie drama film directed, produced, scripted and edited by Seam Baker. Relative big success and critical acclaim for an indie/low budget film.

Sean Baker

Born on 1971 in New Jersey, studied movie making in New York, started career in 2000, and is proponent of indie/creative/low budget style. Florida Project is his 6th movie. Previous one (Tangerine) got some attention mainly because of its daring style and filmed with iPhone. Florida Project is mostly filmed on 35 mm film.

Influences

TV series "Little Rascals" (from 20s to 50s), which depicted children in lower social categories, but focusing on the universal traits of children.

Casting

Partly on social media or "streetcasting", like "Adieu Philippines"... Influence of French New Wave on US indie cinema?

Lot of improvisations

Children playing, rainbow, helicopters, sales to tourists...

Gives the feeling of documentary style, as if the movie was really "A Summer with Munni"... (Bergman...)

Story telling

First half of the movie exposes slice of life, no apparent purpose or plot. The story reveals itself in the second part - not an unusual pattern, for example "the 400 blows" - another French New Wave reference.

Lots of humanity. “I hope this movie inspires people to get involved —donation, education, support, advocacy. … Audiences are asking what [the ending] means, and that’s important because it has people discussing the ending, which means they’re actually discussing the topic.”

Final scene

Open to interpretation. Visual style is different: iPhone.

"It's not against the law, it's just against the rules, and sometimes you have to break rules to make a film".