Subtropic Film Festival
A draft I had
Last Wednesday, in my quest to do fun things that inspire me and help me find my most creative path, I went to the Subtropic Film Festival hosted at Gramps in Wynwood.
We watched five short documentaries about Florida:
Florida Boys by Niko Gelakis
The Mango Movie by Jayme Gershen
Python Huntress by Matt Deblinger and Nicholas Orris
Foreverglading by Rey Jaffet and Gregory Persochin
Test of Time by Julian Alicea (Common Interest)
Today Im going to tell you about the snake catcher in pink and camo:
Python Huntress.
Some stories grab you like a seven-foot python sliding through the grass. Python Huntress was that kind of story.
Imagine this: a 63-year-old woman wearing a snake print hat, a pink shirt, camo pants and a big smile that says “I’ve done this a hundred times.” That’s Donna Kalil. A real life snake hunter from Florida. She has been catching pythons professionally for eight years and has caught 1,052 of them. She knows exactly what she’s doing (and clearly enjoys it too).
But these aren’t just any snakes. Burmese pythons are an invasive species that are hurting Florida’s Everglades. They have been in the area for about 40 years and now there are 14 generations of them. Since they don’t have any natural predators here, they eat everything rabbits, birds, frogs, even baby alligators. They’re a big reason why many native animals are disappearing.
The film shows Donna catching huge snakes with her bare hands; sometimes with just one hand, and sometimes in the water. There was one scene with a rabbit and a snake that I just couldn’t watch.
And still, Donna brings such energy. Every time she catches one, she shouts a happy “Whoohoo!” like she’s on a ride at a theme park. She even brings her husband and daughter with her.
The film looked beautiful too. There were amazing shots of the water at night, shiny snake skin, and Donna walking through the tall grass like a hero from a movie.
How it started
The directors, Matt Deblinger and Nicholas Orris, had never made a film before. One night in 2019, they decided to follow Donna on one of her hunts. She showed up in a snake-print shirt and casually said, “I caught five last night.” Classic Donna.
They filmed her in action, did a one-hour interview and then didn’t really know how to put it all together. But they figured it out. They had no budget and had to edit everything over Zoom at night because one of them lives in another state. Still, they made something really special. It finally premiered in 2023.
And now I can’t stop thinking about Donna Kalil, 63, driving through the Everglades with pink on her shoulders and a mission in her heart; grabbing pythons, smiling big and shouting “Whoohoo” into the wild.
Python Huntress is now an Emmy award winning documentary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
