film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
, professor at the
Florida State University College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts
The Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts (colloquially known as The Film School) is the film school of the Florida State University. About 215 students are enrolled in classes, including undergraduates and graduate students, inc ...
, and a founding member of the
Independent Feature Project
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independen ...
. He is best known for directing ''
Ulee's Gold
''Ulee's Gold'' is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Victor Nuñez and starring Peter Fonda in the title role. Co-stars include Patricia Richardson, Christine Dunford, Tom Wood, Jessica Biel, J. Kenneth Campbell and Vanessa Zima. ...
'', a critically acclaimed movie starring
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a prominent figure in the counterculture of the 1960s. Fond ...
and
Patricia Richardson
Patricia Castle Richardson (born February 23, 1951) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Jill Taylor on the ABC sitcom ''Home Improvement'', for which she was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Le ...
. Nunez was inducted into the
Florida Artists Hall of Fame Florida Artists Hall of Fame recognizes artists who have made significant contributions to art in Florida. It was established by the Florida Legislature in 1986. There is a Florida Artists Hall of Fame Wall on the Plaza Level in the rotunda of the ...
in 2008 and
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
in 2016.
Education and early career
Nunez grew up in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
and
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...
. He received his undergraduate degree from
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...
where he made his first fictional shorts, "Fairground" (1968) and "Taking Care of Mother Baldwin" (1970). At the
UCLA Film School
The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), is one of the 12 schools within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in Los Angeles, California. Its creation was groundbreaking in that it was the first time a leadi ...
, Nunez received an MFA in film directing with his thesis short film, "Charly Benson's Return to the Sea" (1972), and went on to make another short, "A Circle in the Fire" (1974).
''Gal Young Un''
Nunez made his feature debut in 1979 with the film ''Gal Young Un'', which premiered at the 1979
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...
. ''Gal Young Un'', based on the short story by
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (August 8, 1896 – December 14, 1953) accessed December 8, 2014. was an , centers on a spinster woman who lives alone in the woods of north Florida until she is swept off her feet by an opportunistic bootlegger, Trax. He marries her for her place and her daddy's money and her cooking and cleaning, which she freely shares. Inevitably, he shows his true colors in a variety of ways. One day Trax brings home a very young woman with clear intentions of keeping her as a mistress (a gal young 'un) in the older woman's house. Business takes him elsewhere and the two woman are left alone in the woods together to come to terms with their shared exploitation by Trax.
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
writing in the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' called ''Gal Young Un''
The film was seminal in the early movement of American Independent Cinema. In 2006
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy is an American film critic and professor who has taught at Columbia University, New School for Social Research, Wellesley College, Arizona State University and UCLA Film School. Levy currently teaches in the department of cinem ...
wrote:
''A Flash of Green''
Based on a novel by
John D. MacDonald
John Dann MacDonald (July 24, 1916December 28, 1986) was an American writer of novels and short stories. He is known for his thrillers.
MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many set in his adopted home of Florida. On ...
and starring
Ed Harris
Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''The Truman Show'' (1998), ''Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award n ...
, premiered at the 1984
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...
. A story about saving an unspoiled bay from greedy developers, and ending with a story about a man trying to save himself from his own greed.
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
wrote:
''Ruby in Paradise''
In
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
he made ''
Ruby in Paradise
''Ruby in Paradise'' is a 1993 film written and directed by Victor Nunez, starring Ashley Judd, Todd Field, Bentley Mitchum, Allison Dean, and Dorothy Lyman. An homage to ''Northanger Abbey'' by Jane Austen, the film is a character study about a y ...
'', which starred
Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd (born Ashley Tyler Ciminella; April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonna ...
, in her first leading role, and also future Academy nominated filmmaker
Todd Field
William Todd Field (born February 24, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for directing three feature films: ''In the Bedroom'' (2001), '' Little Children'' (2006), and ''Tár'' (2022). He has received three Academy Award nomi ...
. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
wrote:
''Ulee's Gold''
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a prominent figure in the counterculture of the 1960s. Fond ...
plays Ulee (short for Ulysses) Jackson, a Vietnam veteran, widower and grandfather. He is a beekeeper by profession, who raises two granddaughters,
Jessica Biel
Jessica Claire Timberlake (née Biel ; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress and model. She has received various accolades, including a Young Artist Award, and nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Biel be ...
and
Vanessa Zima
Vanessa Zima (born December 17, 1986) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as a child actress in the 1990s films ''The Baby-Sitters Club'', ''Ulee's Gold'', and ''Wicked'', and for her recurring role on the first season of the 199 ...
, because his son, Tom Wood, is in prison and his daughter-in-law
Christine Dunford
Christine Dunford is an American actress from the Bronx, New York.
Life and career
Christine Dunford was born in the Bronx. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1979, the year that she played a featured role in the school's ...
, a drug addict, has run away. Fonda was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
.
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
wrote:
Sundance Film Festival
Nunez is one of the founding members of the Utah/US Film Festival which was renamed the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
in 1991.
Filmography
*''Fairground'' (1968)
*''Taking Care of Mother Baldwin'' (1970)
*''Charly Benson's Return to the Sea'' (1972)
*''
A Circle in the Fire
"A Circle in the Fire" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1954 and published in 1955 in her short story collection ''A Good Man is Hard to Find''. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work.
...
'' (1974)
*''
Gal Young Un
''Gal Young 'Un'' is a 1979 American drama film directed by Victor Nuñez.
Plot
In the Prohibition era, the late 1920s, in the backwoods country of Florida, Mattie, an independent, middle-aged, pipe-smoking widow, lives alone. She has given up soc ...
'' (1979)
*''
A Flash of Green
''A Flash of Green'' is a 1984 American drama film directed by Victor Nuñez. It was first shown at the Toronto Festival of Festivals and New York Film Festival in 1984, then aired on PBS as an episode of ''American Playhouse'' in 1986. It is base ...
'' (1984)
*''
Ruby in Paradise
''Ruby in Paradise'' is a 1993 film written and directed by Victor Nunez, starring Ashley Judd, Todd Field, Bentley Mitchum, Allison Dean, and Dorothy Lyman. An homage to ''Northanger Abbey'' by Jane Austen, the film is a character study about a y ...
'' (1993)
*''
Ulee's Gold
''Ulee's Gold'' is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Victor Nuñez and starring Peter Fonda in the title role. Co-stars include Patricia Richardson, Christine Dunford, Tom Wood, Jessica Biel, J. Kenneth Campbell and Vanessa Zima. ...
'' (1997)
*''
Coastlines
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
'' (2002)
*''
Spoken Word
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...