Thank you, Chris Sloan. I needed this. We may all need this.
As Key West locals, it’s easy to become jaded and cynical about the island we call home. It’s too hot. It’s too expensive. we’ve been to all these events before. It was better 20 years ago. Really? So was every other town in every other country, according to anyone who was there 20 years ago. The “been-there-done-that” attitude is not unique to Key West, but it is pervasive.
But when it comes down to it, for most of us, there’s no place we’d rather be. Sometimes we just need a reminder.
Enter Chris Sloan and his TimeFlies in Key West video project. This is truly a feat, and was the reminder I desperately needed. Sloan, who divides his time between Key West and Miami, has not only captured, but honored and elevated all of Key West in ways we’ve never seen before.
TimeFlies in Key West is a multi-part video and visual celebration of a 2-by-4-mile island, and it’s available to view, download, share and savor over and over again, entirely for free, on YouTube @TimeFlies in Key West. Visit Florida Keys, the island chain’s tourism marketing agency, has also created a page on its website that features all 13 videos in the TimeFlies in Key West series.
“This project was supposed to take me a week, and it took five years,” Sloan told the Keys Weekly last week. “It’s really my love letter to Key West and the Florida Keys. The footage isn’t for sale. I want everyone to be able to access and enjoy it. I’m still trying to find a place where it can be screened constantly, live with a giant, interactive map showing the neighborhoods as they appear in the videos.”
TimeFlies in Key West is a striking and upbeat compilation of time-lapse, hyper-lapse and drone footage that documents Key West and the Lower Keys from air, land and sea. Sloan has dedicated the Key West video project to the memory of Key Westers Cheryl and Crystal Cates, the late wife and daughter of former Key West Mayor Craig Cates, both of whom died during the COVID pandemic.
I’ve lived here for nearly 30 years and this is easily the most comprehensive visual exploration of Key West and its surroundings, up to Geiger Key. Sloan films the islands from a kayak, from underwater, from snorkel boats and sunset cruises. He captures the coffee shops and canals, marinas and Mallory Square, beaches and bands, residential neighborhoods and resorts, the high school band and Harry S. Truman’s historic limousine. Everything is in there.
If you’ve ever watched, marched in — or had your company’s golf cart break down in — the city’s beloved holiday parade, you know how long it stretches. Sloan shows you the whole thing, start to finish, every float, in about six minutes. How long do you think it would take to drive every inch of this 2-x-4 island, 32 miles total? You’d have to navigate school zone traffic on Flagler, tour vehicles going 13 mph up a one-way street, road construction and lane closures, e-bikes that are going too fast to pass and too slow to keep up with cars. Sloan’s video condenses that whole-day trip in, again, six minutes.
The 13-video series breaks the island into its component neighborhoods — Old Town, Downtown & Bahama Village; Duval Street & Southernmost Point; Lower Duval, Mallory Square, & Clinton Square; Atlantic Beaches, Salt Ponds, Riviera Canal, & Cow Key; Historic Seaport and Surrounding Areas; Casa Marina, South Atlantic Ocean Beaches & Parks; Mid Town & New Town and more.
“I wanted this to become a permanent record of what was happening here and what this place looked like at this moment in time,” said Sloan (no relation to local entrepreneur and author David Sloan). “I was most interested in going where the cameras weren’t usually looking. The places that don’t appear on brochures and tourism websites, like the inside of Fausto’s Food Palace. History is made here every day, and I became obsessed because so many of these things will be gone. And the time-lapse videography gives it a certain energy and allows me to show six different architectural features of, say, St. Mary’s, but in seven to eight seconds.”
Sloan showed me a few of the 13 videos while they were still being edited, and I was glued to his laptop screen, regularly pointing to my own favorite landmarks. “I got married there.” “That’s my old street.” “Oh, I miss that restaurant.” “I think I dated a guy who worked there,” and so on.
“Everyone comments about their own personal connections to various places that are shown,” Sloan said. “I’ve been to about 50 countries and all 50 states, and I always say that if someone told me I could either have those 50 countries, or everything south of the Miami-Dade/Monroe County line, I’d choose the Keys. Every time. Without hesitation.”
TimeFlies in Key West is Key West like you’ve never seen it before.
Check it out on YouTube. Share it with everyone who loves Key West. I promise you’ll be glad you did. Perhaps, like me, during a contentious election, a sweltering summer and other local annoyances, you, too, could use a reminder of what this island means to all of us.
