Avalon Daggett

Florence Avalon Daggett (1907–2002)^[1] was an American filmmaker and philanthropist. She is associated with Avalon Daggett Productions, a film production company based in Los Angeles which specialized in short documentary films, and educational films.^[2] Many of her later films were produced for the state of Louisiana.

Biography

Florence Avalon Daggett born in Jennings, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana and was raised on a plantation.^[3] She lived in Switzerland for a few years.^[4] She was described as being diminutive in stature.^[5] She filmed with a Bolex 16 mm film camera and her work had been honored at the Cannes Film Festival.^[6][7]

Daggett made documentary films about Western subjects including Native American tribes and cattle, where she made use of a technique known as tribesourcing. Tribesourcing is an approach applied to update, correct, and contextualize educational films; many of these films have historical value but the films are often containing incorrect or demeaning "facts", especially about Native Americans.^[8]

Daggett also made films about sights in her home state of Louisiana, and about Mississippi.^[5] She made a film for the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission, entitled A Way of Life (1961).^[9]

Philanthropy

After she died in 2002, the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (LSU AgCenter) was left with an endowment for professorships by Daggett.^[6] Daggett had been friends with Dr. Joe Musick, the former director of the Rice Research Station at LSU AgCenter (near Crowley); where many of her bequeathed funds were used.^[6]

She also funded a Native American scholarship in Arizona.^[6]

Filmography

• Louisiana Gayride (1949)^[7]
• Indian Pow-wow (1951)
• Smoki Snake Dance (1952)
• Villages in the Sky (1952)^[10][11]
• Peaceful Ones (1952)^[12]
• Warriors at Peace (1952)^[7][13]
• Tribe of the Turquoise Waters (1952)^[14]
• Apache (1953)^[15]
• Navajo Canyon Country (1954)^[1][16]
• America the Beautiful, series^[5]
• Mississippi Magic (1954)
• 66th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade (1954)
• Arizona Adventure (1954)
• Weavers of the West (1954)
• Herds West (1955)^[17]
• Father of the Southwest (1957)
• Copper, Steward of the Nation (1959)^[7]
• Roses Pasadena, California; 1955 Theme, Familiar Sayings in Flowers^[18]
• Marshes of the Mississippi (1961)
• A Way of Life (1961), for the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission
• Rice, America’s Food For the World (1962)
• The Big Span (ca. 1963)^[19]
• Signs, Signals and Safety (1966)
• School Bus Driver VIP (1967)^[7]
• Louisiana: The Jazz Age Meets the Space Age (1968), for Louisiana Department of Commerce and Industry (now Louisiana State Board of Commerce and Industry), Baton Rouge^[20]
• Big Piers (1968), for the Louisiana Department of Highways^[21]
• Big River Crossing (1968), for the Louisiana Department of Highways^[22]
• Swamp Expressway (1972)^[7]