Florida’s Great Python Hunt
David Borenstein, Anthropology
This 20-30 minute documentary short presents a political economy of Everglades restoration. The narrative structure of the film centers around Florida’s “Python Challenge,” a new “market-based solution” for Everglades restoration that offers cash rewards to hunters for eliminating invasive Burmese pythons. An anthropological lens is directed towards the category of invasive, using ecological theory to problematize the categories of “native” and invasives. The film then turns it’s critical lens to what media frenzy over this issue mystifies, examining the more serious crises in the Everglades and the forces of capital that continue to radically transform the Everglades ecosystem. This critical analysis connect to cinéma vérité scenes of hunters” and “gladesmen” as they compete in the challenge and grapple with the issues outlined above.
