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In 1994, George A. Romero traveled to Valencia Community College in central Florida to make a short film about a swamp-dwelling bigfoot called Jacaranda Joe. Largely unknown and presumed lost, a copy of the film was discovered in the University of Pittsburgh Library System’s Romero archive. 

Join us for the film’s FIRST EVER public screening, followed by a discussion with Valencia alums who worked on the film: George Rizkallah, Michael Sellers, and A. Elizabeth Tobin Kurtz. 

We've discussed Jacaranda Joe in several blog posts since we discovered it. This post offers a brief summary of the film and a bit of the backstory. This post discusses The Footage, Romero's first attempt at a bigfoot movie, which he reworked into Jacaranda Joe. Here is a brief update of the 35mm camera negative that we tracked down. The most thorough discussion of Jacaranda Joe's history can be found here, based on my discussions with crew members:

the film was the second installment of an innovative program devised by Valencia Community College faculty member Ralph Clemente that brough established filmmakers to campus to direct a short film. The previous year, Robert Wise (director of The Haunting, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music), filmed a short called Best Two of Three with Valencia students. Jacaranda Joe was written by Romero with the scope (and limitations) of filming in ten days in central Florida with a student crew in mind. Romero picked up an idea he had first developed two decades earlier, about a tv show that stumbles across a bigfoot society in the woods. Romero transposed this from the woods to the Florida swamps, reduced the bigfoot community to a single "skunk ape" creature, and built the majority of the narrative around a sleazy talk show host's discussion of the brief glimpse of the creature that had come to be known as "Jacaranda Joe." That meant that most of the shoot would take place on a single set. Joe himself only appeared in a single, blurry shot, which meant that while a full creature needed to be designed and executed, it could be relatively simple compared to a monster that needed to be on camera for long stretches of a movie. 

Panelists: 

George Rizkallah was one of the editors on Jacaranda Joe. In 2004, he founded The Product Factory, which has provided post-production services (including George's own) for clients including Marvel Animation, Cartoon Network, Film Roman, Lions Gate, The Disney Channel, The Jim Henson Company, Warner Bros, Mark Burnett Productions, and Paramount Pictures. His credits as editorial supervisor include a number of series produced by Marvel Animation, for which Jacaranda Joe actor Isaac C. Singleton Jr. voices Thanos. 

A. Elizabeth Tobin Kurtz was the prop master on Jacaranda Joe. She is a film producer, documentary director, and content creator based in Orlando. You can find information on her current project, a feature documentary called Resilience, at the website for Irwin Kurtz Films. 

Michael Sellers has worked steadily for 23 years in the film and television industry as an editor and post production manager for high profile network television projects but he also carves time out to manage his own independent production company. Recently Michael started working in tandem with a WWII veterans organization to develop and direct a feature documentary film titled Return To Hardwick. Actor Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead, Band of Brothers) narrates the film and also participates in screenings across the country. Return To Hardwick has been picked up for distribution in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. by distributor Gravitas Ventures. It’s available on popular media streaming formats like Amazon, iTunes and Google Play. Learn more here: www.hardwickfilm.com

- Adam Charles Hart