ALONG THESE WATERS
Creativity fuels filmmaker’s drive
Growing up in Fort Pierce, Michael Nash seemed destined
to a career in the automotive business like his dad, the local
Pontiac-Cadillac dealer, or his uncles, who ran dealerships in
the Chicago area.
The son of Phil and Alice Nash, he was a popular student
at John Carroll High School, known for his talent, both in his
10
art classes and on the football field.
After attending Indian River
Community College and Florida State
University, Nash embarked on his predictable
career in the automotive business,
landing a job with the Janie Dean
dealerships and later working as a consultant
based in Atlanta turning car and
boat dealerships around.
But a funny thing happened on his
climb up the corporate ladder. Nash decided
to get off and pursue his dream of
becoming an actor. So in the early 1990s, he
quit his job and moved to New York,
studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
He moved to LA in 1994 to make films. First came
“Nebraska,” an independent film he directed and wrote and
acted in. For the last five years, he has devoted himself to
“Fuel,” a documentary-style drama that won the Grand Jury
Award at the Lisbon International Film Festival this summer.
The award included a $50,000 prize.
When Nash returned home from Portugal, he received a
2007 Global Innovation Award. He was in big company.
Some of the other recipients included Steve Wozniak,
founder of Apple Computers, Scott McNealy, founder of Sun
Microsystems, and John Chambers, founder and CEO of
Cisco Systems.
“Fuel” was made for surprisingly little and Nash says the
award at the Lisbon film festival comfortably exceeded the
cost of making it. He says the film is based on a true story
about a reclusive intellectual who builds a device that uses
magnetism and eliminates the need for oil, gas and electricity.
“I think deep down there was something inside of me that
needed to come out, whether it was on canvas or writing stories,”
Nash says. “I came to this town to entertain people,
whether it’s through education or fear or laughing or whatever
genre.”
While his early days in LA were a struggle, Nash, 47, says
his phone is now ringing and people are returning his calls.
“The film has brought me some interesting things,” he
says. “I’ve had dinner with Al Gore over this. I’ve met some
interesting people, and it’s really put me in the center of the
Green Movement and sustainability.”
Next up, Nash hopes to get a distribution deal for “Fuel”
in Europe. One day, he says, he hopes to produce a film
about his days at John Carroll. “I’ve already written the
screenplay. It’s a big budget comedy.”
Bey leaves jazz society on up beat
After 11 years of running the Fort Pierce Jazz and Blues
Society, Darryl Bey has decided to take five.
Bey, who co-founded the organization, left his post as executive
director this summer after earlier receiving the Lucie
Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award from the St. Lucie
County Cultural Affairs Council.
“I was nominated last year and this year I won,” says Bey,
56. “When I thought about it, I thought it was a good time to
go out — on top. After doing it for 11 years, I felt like it was
time for me to move on and that it was time for some new
blood to come to the organization.”
Bey had started the society’s weekly
jazz jams at the Fort Pierce Community
Center and Harbor Place in Port St. Lucie.
Over the years, the society sponsored concerts
for adult jazz lovers, funded music
scholarships and conducted music outreach
programs in the school system.
Bey grew the organization from casual
gatherings in a bookstore to a membership
today with 450 members and an office at
110 N. Depot Drive in Fort Pierce.
Though the society is perhaps best
known for the concerts it sponsored at the
Darryl Bey ran the
Fort Pierce Jazz &
Blues Society for
11 years.
Fort Pierce Magnet School of the Arts and the Sunrise
Theatre, Bey says the concerts were sparsely attended, with
just 150 people attending the biggest one.
Bey, who remains in the society as an honorary director,
says the organization will focus more on education efforts for
children. In the meantime, the society will look for an executive
director. But the first order of business is finding a new
president of the organization. For the past two years, Bey
had served as acting president of the board and as the executive
director.
Bey says he’ll spend more time concentrating on his house
painting business and a music promotion company, BlueBird
Productions, he put on the back burner.
“We built it up,” Bey says of the society’s work. “We did
some major things in this part of the state that nobody had
done in raising awareness of jazz.”
A force for positive change
We mourn the passing on these shores of Philip Custer
Gates, citrus pioneer in what he helped develop as the
mighty Indian River citrus region.
Born in 1924, Gates grew up on the family’s 1910 homestead
on South Indian River Drive, now occupied by his son
and daughter-in-law, Flip and Sunny Gates.
Gates, who was one of the founding members of the
Pelican Yacht Club, weathered the highs and lows of the citrus
business, from freezes to canker to hurricanes to
encroaching development. He grew his family’s Kanawha
Groves holdings to more than 1,000 acres of citrus groves
“We bought land here and there, wherever we could,” he
said of his halcyon days in the citrus business. “Back then,
land was relatively cheap, so we planted as much as we
could. Times were great then.”
His many memberships, which included terms as the president
of the Fort Pierce Growers Association and the Indian
River Citrus League, were intended to improve the standing
of the industry.
“I tried to stay active in as many industry organizations as
possible,” he said. “That way you can affect positive change.”
Gates, 83, took on the same approach when he was diagnosed
with lung cancer earlier this year. He stayed active up
until his death, attending weekly Sunday services at St.
Andrew’s Episcopal Church and dining at a favorite breakfast
spot and his beloved Pelican.
Our thanks to playwright and historian Ada Coats Williams for
giving us permission to use the title “Along These Waters” for
this column.
Michael Nash made
the film ‘Fuel,’ which
took a top award at the
Lisbon International
Film Festival.