Steve Dollar

Tallahassee

Journalist/filmcrit (LA Times, Flamingo, Filmmaker Mag). Artistic director (Tallahassee Film Festival). Florida man (lower case). Free jazz RTs.

Articles

Flora-Bama Mullet Toss: A Tradition Across State Lines

1 week ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | April 16, 2025 Flora-Bama Mullet Toss: A Tradition Across State Lines St. Louis has the Gateway Arch. Seattle has its Space Needle. Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign. Yet, can any of these symbolic civic wonders really compare to the salt-crusted, mullet-tossed, beer-sodden glory that is the Flora-Bama Lounge?
Noah Verrier Turns Fast Food Into Fine Art

3 weeks ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | April 2, 2025 Noah Verrier Turns Fast Food Into Fine Art To paraphrase an old saying, one man’s junk food is another one’s treasure. At least if that man is Noah Verrier, whose oil paintings of highly processed snacks, cheeseburgers hot from the drive-thru window, luminous gummy bears and other dubious dietary choices have made him a viral sensation and a highly collectible artist.
A Guide to Florida's Film Festival Season

1 month ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | March 18, 2025 A Guide to Florida’s Film Festival Season April is film festival month across Florida. The timing makes sense as the year’s first major festivals—Sundance, South By Southwest and Germany’s Berlinale—have recently premiered the buzziest and most-promising new movies, anointing the films’ subsequent run on the festival circuit.
How Jacksonville's Madison Hughes Found Her Voice

1 month ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

How Jacksonville’s Madison Hughes Found Her Voice Jacksonville native Madison Hughes had her first brush with fame in 2022 when she wowed the nation (and superstar judges Camila Cabello, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani) on “The Voice,” stirring big emotions with her version of Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” The singer only had one more appearance on the popular vocal competition, but the brief turn in the spotlight helped kickstart her artistic ambitions.
Oscar nominee unpacks a 1961 CIA-backed coup involving jazz greats

2 months ago | latimes.com | Steve Dollar

History is a playlist crackling with fire and intrigue in “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.” The film’s heady 2½ hours are as thick with detail as a graduate seminar yet bustle like a TikTok video, a deft and nearly breathless archival exposé that centers on the January 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, less than a year after he was elected leader of the newly formed Democratic Republic of the Congo, at last independent from Belgium’s colonial rule.
How the CIA used jazz greats as cover for a 1961 coup in Africa

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Steve Dollar

History is a playlist crackling with fire and intrigue in “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.” The film’s heady 2½ hours are as thick with detail as a graduate seminar yet bustle like a TikTok video, a deft and nearly breathless archival exposé that centers on the January 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, less than a year after he was elected leader of the newly formed Democratic Republic of the Congo, at last independent from Belgium’s colonial rule.
Filmmaker Ian Weir's "Tigers of the Sky" Documentary Wins Tallahassee Film Festival Flamingo Prize

2 months ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | February 10, 2025 Filmmaker Ian Weir’s “Tigers of the Sky” Documentary Wins Tallahassee Film Festival Flamingo Prize Big Bend residents know that the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is a magical site: 83,000 acres of unspoiled habitat sprawling across Wakulla, Jefferson and Taylor counties that, among its many wonders, is a critical winter home for migratory birds.
How Ukrainian artists channeled their creativity into documenting war

2 months ago | latimes.com | Steve Dollar

Art mobilizes against bullets, bombs and tanks in “Porcelain War,” a documentary about how beauty not only persists amid the wreckage of warfare but serves as a necessary existential weapon of its own. The film, which won the U.S. grand jury prize for documentary at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, is competing for an Academy Award — drawing never-more-urgent focus to the Ukrainian fight against invading Russian forces.
Oscar Nominee RaMell Ross Brings a New Perspective to "The Nickel Boys"

2 months ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | January 30, 2025 Oscar Nominee RaMell Ross Brings a New Perspective to “The Nickel Boys” Movies based on great novels tend to be fairly straightforward affairs. Not to oversimplify matters, but the literary source and the machinery of its widely read plot can easily take precedence over other elements.
How Cainnon Gregg is Redefining Gulf Coast Oysters

Jan 20, 2025 | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | January 20, 2025 How Cainnon Gregg is Redefining Gulf Coast Oysters As the frontman in multiple punk and hardcore bands in the early aughts, Cainnon Gregg spent his youth slamming full tilt on the Jacksonville bar circuit, a scene blaring in the long shadow of Southern rock demigods. “We used to play Freebird (Cafe),” recalls Gregg, of the venue founded by Ronnie Van Zant’s widow Judy Van Zant and daughter Melody.