Star North (Facebook | Website) is eyeing up Central Florida for its new feature film, The Highwaymen, which will focus on the story of 25 young African-American painters in the Jim Crow era that traveled up and down local highways selling their paintings.
The painters, who weren’t allowed to show in traditional galleries simply because of the color of their skin, were known for using left-over construction material and house paint, to create their distinctive recreations of Florida landscapes. They would sell their paintings for as little as $20 a piece out of the backs of their cars and are believed to have created over 200,000 pieces of art.
The film is being directed and produced by Todd Thompson, in cooperation with Tim Franta, Kathryn Kelly, and Joy Kigin, and will begin filming as soon as the current COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, at locations across the region, including Orlando Museum of Art, Washington Shores, Parramore, and Holden Heights.
We covered the recent showing of Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen at Orlando Museum of Art at the beginning of the pandemic and Orlando’s Shelter-In-Place order on our Facebook page, which you can see HERE.
Orlando Museum of Art just announced that it will be extending its exhibition of Highwaymen art through the summer in light of the recent postponement of its Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition. More on that HERE.
So what’s the status on the movie?