JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Martinique Lewis, a travel consultant and host of National Geographic's "Black Travel Across America" on Disney+ and Hulu, returns to Jacksonville to film a documentary about tourism in the Moncrief-Myrtle Avenue corridor.
Lewis is working with independent filmmaker Dana Maule to show how tourism in urban areas can save and help preserve Black history.
Visit Jacksonville, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Explore Jax Core and Black Films Matter are a few of the collaborators on the film project, called "Moncrief Springs." In seven months, more than $10,825 has been raised.
Maule says this project is her way of doing positive PR for the Northside and letting people know there’s more to love about Jacksonville.
“There’s magic in Moncrief and this documentary will encourage people to spend time and money here so that Black businesses, Black events, and Black history can get the love they deserve," Maule said.
Filming started this week at several points of interest on Jacksonville’s Northside like Holley’s BBQ, Brentwood Golf Course, and Durkeeville & Co. Producers also took Lewis on a kayaking excursion along the Ribault River with Explore Jax Core. Many of these Jacksonville destinations are listed in Lewis’ travel app, “ABC Travel Greenbook,” an interactive directory of over 170,000 Black-owned destinations across seven continents.
“When people think of Jacksonville, it should be more than the Jaguars, it should be people like Wendy Holley of Holley’s BBQ and Monty Duncan at Brentwood Golf Course," Lewis said.
During Martinique’s first visit to Jacksonville in 2023, she spoke publicly about the Florida NAACP’s travel advisory. The advisory was in response to the state’s education, immigration, and LGBTQ policies. Visit Jacksonville said they were not aware of any businesses canceling trips due to those advisories, the release said.
Between April and June of 2023, Visit Jacksonville reported 5,827,813 estimated visitors and $3.8 billion in tourism comes to Jacksonville’s economy annually, the filmmakers said. Meanwhile, neighborhoods along the Moncrief-Myrtle Ave. corridor are designated food desert communities by the USDA and the city designated the Moncrief area as Health Zone 1 due to its high rates of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Despite the crime and social crisis in the neighborhood, Maule says her film can be a way to start conversations about alliance, amplification, and accountability for Northside neighborhoods and the positive action taking place in the community. The film will be submitted to film festivals in the 2024-2025 competition season.
The documentary is set to come this year.
