2002 Great Lakes Independent Film Festival

The Highwaymen

Category: Documentary Short  46min
Director: Julia D'Amico

The Highwaymen is a documentary about a group of self-taught, African-American landscape painters from southern Florida who began their careers in the 1960s by driving up and down the highways selling their paintings out of their cars.  Motels, doctor's offices, furniture stores were likely customers in those early days.  They painted with whatever materials they could find like house paint on particleboard if necessary.  They found that Florida landscapes were the best sellers and all specialized in what the market seemed to demand.  In the beginning of their careers they enjoyed the money that could be made from Florida landscapes, but thirty-years later Mary Ann Carroll, the only female Highwaymen, concludes "if I never sold another one, I'd still paint, I get joy from it." Today the remaining members of the group are all accomplished painters -- still painting Florida landscapes but now on canvas. It is no longer necessary for the artists to travel the highways, but instead their work is sold in galleries. From their unorthodox beginnings, The Highwaymen are now an integral part of Florida 's art history and identified as the beginning of Florida 's resident, regional art tradition.

Director: Julia D'Amico
The Highwaymen is Julia D'Amico's first documentary. D'Amico is from Florida and first learned of The Highwaymen from a magazine article. After reading the story, she contacted the artists, introduced herself, and began making this film. Currently she is working on her second feature-length project. In addition to her work as a documentary filmmaker, D'Amico is a founding member and Vice President of Operations of a national non-for-profit organization working to help economically disadvantaged adults access career-oriented employment. D'Amico received a Bachelors degree in Sociology and a Masters in the Social Sciences both from the University of Chicago, and received a Masters degree in Cinema Studies from New York University