Jacaranda Joe

2022

17min

In 1994, Romero traveled to Valencia College in Florida to make a short film called Jacaranda Joe. It was a re-imagined version of a movie he'd tried to make in the '70s called The Footage. The film is set on a Geraldo Rivera-like talk show called Remington, on which the sleazy host is discussing footage of a swamp-dwelling bigfoot-like creature that had been captured on video by the TV crew. In the aftermath of that footage getting out, the town of Jacaranda has become overrun by tourists, hunters and filmmakers hoping to find Joe themselves. The talk show panel debates whether Joe is real or a hoax, with a representative of a local Seminole community who claims to have seen Joe also talking about tribal customs and the cruelty and destruction of white American society. The talk show builds to a reveal of the footage of Joe, slowed down to give the audience a better look at the creature. It ends with Remington teasing further discussion and revelations on the rest of the episode.