Silent Sundays Features 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – First Ever Underwater Film Special presentation chronicling history of St. Augustine’s Marineland

HEY SILENT SUNDAYS REGULARS - PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL START TIME - 3:45PM

The Norman Studios Silent Film Museum and the Hotel Indigo® Jacksonville will screen the 1916 silent version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the next Silent Sundays event July 29, 3:45pm.

Bent on revenge, Captain Nemo has built a fantastic submarine and traveled over 20,000 leagues in pursuit of his enemy, Charles Denver, who caused the death of the captain’s beloved Princess Daaker and kidnapped her young daughter. Unbeknownst to Captain Nemo, Denver had abandoned the child and a single sailor on an uncharted island, only to be driven back to the scene by guilt and nightmares years later. Meanwhile, the seas are under siege by a giant, unknown creature and on a distant land, a mysterious figure awaits.

Hailed as the first motion picture ever filmed underwater, this version (which came a decade after Georges Méliès’s 1907 parody) features a storyline based on Verne’s famous novel of the same name, but also icorporates elements of his subsequent novel, The Mysterious Island. Actual underwater cameras were not used, but a system of watertight tubes and mirrors allowed the camera to shoot reflected images of underwater scenes staged in shallow sunlit waters. The film was made by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, now Universal Pictures, long before it achieved status as a major motion picture studio.

This event will include a presentation by Terran McGinnis, Manager of Education and Community Development for Marineland Dolphin Adventure, chronicling the famous facility’s history as America’s first underwater television studio.

Jacksonville University's Tony Steve and the Silver Synchro Sounds will provide live musical accompaniment. Tickets are $5 and available at the door (cash or credit) and online.

Silent Sundays proceeds support efforts of the Norman Studios Silent Film Museum, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing public knowledge of Northeast Florida's early film industry and the preservation and restoration of Jacksonville’s only remaining silent film studio. The Norman Studios was among the nation's first to produce films starring all African American casts. Find out more at normanstudios.org.

Located on the lake in upscale Tapestry Park, the Hotel Indigo® Jacksonville is a boutique-style, lakefront property with interior design elements that recall Jacksonville's film history.