The story of Sarasota, Florida is the story of America from its time as a sleepy fishing village to the transformative city it is today.

Triforce Pictures takes us behind the scenes of the Sarasota experience, a documentary exploring the evolution of community and what the future might hold for this arts and culture hub.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Growing up in high school, I was a vinyl DJ and I loved it.

I loved taking the audience on an emotional rollercoaster and around 21 years old that lifestyle didn't suit me anymore.

That's how I got into filmmaking.

Film has all these different avenues of picture and sound and people, and being out and about and learning new things.

And so that's it, it's taking the audience on an emotional rollercoaster, and that's where it's taking me today to filmmaking.

(dramatic music) Growing up in the eighties and nineties, Steven Spielberg was the dude.

Steven Spielberg still is my dude, and so he inspired me to create wonder.

So in 2001, I packed up my bags, I moved to Los Angeles, then went to the Columbia College of Hollywood and studied directing and writing and producing.

I started my own production company called Triforce Pictures.

We didn't wanna wait for people to give us opportunities to make films so I created commercials, and we did short films and all these things for Triforce.

But most of the time on the big shows I worked as a production assistant.

And I truly believe that if anyone really wants to get into the film business, you should try being a production assistant because it first and foremost, you learn all the jobs.

I lived there and worked for 11 years working on tons of television shows, like "The West Wing," "ER," "Six Feet Under."

Movies like "Where The Wild Things Are," "Little Miss Sunshine."

And that's where I really got the opportunity, and the privilege to create who I am today.

I said there's opportunity to come back to Sarasota and work hard, meet people and create great content.

(upbeat piano music) The Sarasota experience is a WEDU PBS original documentary feature, about the past, the present, and the future of Sarasota.

While exploring what creates a thriving community.

♪ It's magical for ♪ ♪ all if you believe ♪ ♪ There's hidden gem ♪ ♪ There's mystical and meed ♪ ♪ From little in Lemberg ♪ ♪ From the sigh ♪ ♪ she has to keep ♪ ♪ Sarasota is unique ♪ Being a local, I just, this was everything I ever wanted to do was make a film about the town that I love.

The town that I grew up in.

- We wouldn't have been able to do it without the support of so many people.

Everyone got behind it and they were excited.

(people laughing) I would describe the Sarasota experience as a look into little beach town, not so little anymore.

You can see the ups and downs and how similar we are to other communities in all parts of the country.

(soft piano music) For me, the biggest thing that I learned was how history just repeats itself.

We have a lot of history makers living right now in our timeframe that we interviewed that are living amongst us and walking amongst us, that we'll be talking about in a hundred years.

- By creating this documentary that gets to the heart of the issues of things in Sarasota, we're really getting to shed light on things that I want to show how beautiful Sarasota is and our potential.

(soft piano music continues) And action!

(curious piano music) - Burns court sequence was really something to watch.

- This 300 foot, one shot cinematic scene is now the opening shot and it involves highlighting many of the performing arts organizations of Sarasota.

And we follow and go and pass them, and it's just this dynamic shot.

The reason why you do one shot is to show the camaraderie to show everybody's together at one time, and I believe that this was showing a microcosm of Sarasota.

It took a month to prep.

- [Filmmaker] The night started at 11:00 AM, when the barricades got dropped off, and then it was kind of just really all systems go at that point.

- [Filmmaker] We rehearsed it for the first like four hours.

- [Filmmaker] The whole neighborhood was pumped.

You could feel the energy the whole time on the street.

- All the performers donated their time.

(whispers) Thank you so much.

It took us 12 times to get the shot.

And I'm really, really happy with what we accomplished.

(somber piano music) I think that many things are gonna resonate with people and if you take one thing home about this documentary, I would want you to take home that life is bigger than just us.

And I really hope that this documentary is galvanizing for people to reach out to one another, to be more loving, to be more civil.

It's not what your community can do for you it's what you can do for your community, for now and for our future.

- Thank you guys so much.

I'm really fortunate that, you know, we live in a community that really supports the arts in the way they do.

Filmmaking is honestly the most interesting thing I've ever done in my life.

When you watch these things, it's very exciting.

And so to know that I got to be part of it, was really special.

- The question is, am I proud of this project?

I've never been so proud of something in my life.

I don't think there's anything that I can show of how lucky I feel to be able to collaborate with all these people, to make this documentary that I'm so proud to share with everyone.

(light music) - [Dalia] For more information visit WEDU.org/sarasota and triforcepictures.com.