This video produced by the Honors Advanced Documentary Workshop in 2022 serves as an orientation for visitors to the WellsBuilt Museum of African American History and Culture in downtown Orlando.  Honors students conducted historical and cultural research on the WellsBuilt Hotel and Casino, listed in the famous Green Book during the Jim Crow era of segregation.  Students wanted the video to situate the hotel and casino within the context of Parramore, Orlando’s historically Black community.  In addition to producing the video, students also received a grant to purchase a new video monitor for the museum.

 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

You know a project is important if it leads you to the next project.  After I interviewed Florida Senator Geraldine Thompson for Marching Forward in 2018, she approached me about making a video to promote her preservation project, The Wells’Built Hotel.  Situated in Parramore, this historic landmark is now a museum of African American History and Culture, housing many artifacts that illustrate Orlando’s rich Black History.

 

In Spring 2022 an opportunity arose for me to co-teach a section of Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar with Dr. Robert Cassanello, UCF Associate Professor of History.  This would be our third co-directed film produced with students in the Burnett Honors College.  The class met on UCF’s downtown campus, and one of the first activities we led was students taking a walk down Parramore Avenue from campus to the museum.  We wanted students to get a sense of Parramore’s few remaining historic landmarks. Ultimately, students gathered archive photos, conducted historical research, and produced a 15-minute video for visitors to the museum to watch.  The video is not about the museum itself, rather it situates the Wells’Built Hotel in the context of Parramore’s history.  Students were very proud of their work, and produced a poster about their experience for Student Research Week, winning an award for their efforts.