The Finest Hours: Coast Guard’s Daring Rescue & Disney Movie

The true story of how two separate oil tankers split in half in a 1952 Nor’easter off Cape Cod and how the Disney movie about the disaster was made. The hero of this story was Bernie Webber of Melbourne, Florida.

This event is funded by the Florida Humanities Florida Talks: At Home! program.

Documentaries

Learn about the problem, the pressures and the people that worked together to catch Lightning in a Bottle, creating a regional solution and writing Tampa Bay's greatest environmental success story that has benefited the region for the past 25 years. Video | 56m

Discover the amazing Spanish, English, French, and American forts that now sit as relics to a bygone age in Florida History.
Video | 1h 13m

How Jacksonville Beach maintains its unique identity and whether its sense of community is important to the residents and their quality of life.
Video | 0h 55m

How can Florida thrive in the 21st century? Can it improve education, spark business development, boost citizen involvement?
Video | 0h 55m

Almost nothing survives of the shocking event known as Ax Handle Saturday. Memories locked away for half-a-century. Until now.
Video | 0h 29m

What will Florida look like in 2030? More importantly, what will it live like? Architects, planners, civic leaders, historians and plain folks weigh in.
Video | 0h 59m

Florida's dramatic transformation since World War II is featured in this colorful, compelling one-hour documentary. Narrated by actor Ed Asner.
Video | 0h 59m

America has faced many crises, from its very beginning as a new nation, to the Civil War and Great Depression, to World War II, the Cold War, and 9/11.
Video | 1h 27m

The fascinating history of Weeki Wachee Springs told through vintage photographs of the mermaids from their earliest days.
Video | 1h 13m

The true story of how two separate oil tankers split in half off Cape Cod and how the Disney movie about the disaster was made. Video | 1h 01m

"Florida Talks: At Home!"

Central Florida has become an area of rapid growth. From Zora Neale Hurston to Mary McLeod Bethune, Black women made significant contributions across Florida. Our scholars will discuss the sites and stories unique to Black women in Central Florida. Video | 1h 07m

Two hundred years ago a group of pirates and privateers invaded Amelia Island, Florida in hopes of striking a blow for the Spanish American Revolutions.
Video | 1h 04m

The state of Florida has recently mandated public schools and institutions teach the history of the Ocoee Massacre. What happened in Ocoee, Florida in 1920?
Video | 1h 00m

Art historian, Mallory O’Connor, presents a 'Look' at Florida through the many eccentric images that tell the story of our state.
Video | 0h 55m

Explore efforts to restore Florida’s waterways and the motivations of environmentalists who love and advocate for these water bodies.
Video | 0h 59m

America has faced many crises, from its very beginning as a new nation, to the Civil War and Great Depression, to World War II, the Cold War, and 9/11.
Video | 1h 27m

To some, it’s a paradise. To others, it’s a punchline. It’s actually both, as you’ll learn from the author Craig Pittman.
Video | 1h 04m

For more than a decade, journalist Art Levy has traveled the state, interviewing prominent Floridians for a Florida Trend magazine feature called Icon.
Video | 1h 15m

Stereotypes created during the Jim Crow era are deeply embedded in the collective American consciousness and unfortunately have been internalized by many.
Video | 1h 16m

A rare look at a part of Florida history that most people have never heard of, urban fires.
Video | 1h 17m

An examination of the perceptions of women in popular culture through comic books and how this culture has changed over time.
Video | 1h 28m

After the Civil War, gaining voting rights and starting businesses, African-Americans saw education as essential to progress.
Video | 1h 00m

Diane Roberts will discuss how each new wave of Florida settlers through time has reinvented the state to suit themselves.
Video | 1h 06m

Questions that continue to impact Floridians: Who has the right to vote, what are the freedoms of citizens, and whose voices will be heard?
Video | 1h 18m

Mark Catesby surveyed Florida sixty-two years before William Bartram. This lecture is an overview of the over 200 watercolors and drawings.
Video | 1h 10m

Enslaved Africans brought their foodways with them during their forced journey through the Middle Passage. How African influence what Floridians eat today.
Video | 1h 10m

The fascinating history of Weeki Wachee Springs told through vintage photographs of the mermaids from their earliest days.
Video | 1h 13m

How Florida overcame the challenge of mosquitos, perhaps the most vexing struggle humans encountered in the past two centuries.
Video | 1h 32m

Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Key West in the 1890s delivered weapons to the Cuban revolutionary rebels.
Video | 0h 54m

The true story of how two separate oil tankers split in half off Cape Cod and how the Disney movie about the disaster was made. Video | 1h 01m