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STEPHENSON: What is going on right now in Miami, as far as youth culture and film, that people should look out for online or if they visit?
MAYER: There are a lot of interesting subcultures in Miami that are surfacing, but that has been the case for years. The difference now is that funding is becoming more available, and the more experimental, younger artists, the city’s older art community is beginning to pay attention. Without help from the Knight Foundation, a lot of what is happening might not be. We really need a platform to reach new audiences beyond the young people involved there. Sweat Records is the indie hub of Downtown, and as I mentioned, there’s the Borscht Film Festival, which develops and promotes the work of young filmmakers. Local filmmakers are so important, because Miami is still defined by Miami Vice, and whatever imagery MTV pumps out. And there is also Morphologic Studios. What’s great about them, they are facing the same dilemma and hesitation from art galleries here that video art faced the previous decade. They study marine biology and cloning, and present organisms—um, sea critters, to be technical—in the context of art and visual aesthetics. Miami’s culture is still snagged in a weird limbo between new and old, and now marine biologists have slithered their way into it. [LAUGHS]
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