Famed independent film director Jim Jarmusch and Florida go way back. In Jarmusch’s first film, Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Florida is the fabled final destination of the movie’s three characters: New york hipster Willie, his friend Eddie, and Willie’s cousin Eva. After Eva visits New York and then goes to Cleveland, Willie and Eddie join her there and the three of them end up going to Florida together. Although they lose all their money on the dog races, Florida’s mystique is still a central part of the movie.Other iconic Southern towns appear in some of Jarmusch’s other films. For instance, his next film, Down By Law (1986), is set in New Orleans. Here, three men meet each other in prison, come up with a plan to escape, and become lost in the Louisiana bayou. Mystery Train (1989) is an anthology film set in Memphis, Tennessee, composed of three different stories linked by a mysterious hotel and night clerk (played by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, whose song “I Put A Spell On You” was featured prominently in Stranger Than Paradise).Later films are mostly set in big cities, like Night on Earth (1991), starring Winona Ryder, Beatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Matti Pellonp and set simultaneously in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. Dead Man (1995) was an exception, set in the 19th century American West. This film featured both more violence and more surrealism than Jarmusch’s other films, and featured a well-known cast, including Johnny Depp, John Hurt, and Gabriel Byrne. Neil Young provided the soundtrack.Jarmusch’s most recent films include Coffee and Cigarettes (2004), Broken Flowers (2005), and The Limits of Control (2009). However, the writer/director/producer’s newest projects aren’t limited to the silver screen. In September 2010, Jarmusch was a curator of the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival in New York. Music has long played a role in the director’s work, and Jarmusch himself was a keyboardist and vocalist for the little-known No Wave group The Del-Byzanteens. Jarmusch is currently working on a documentary about Iggy Pop’s group The Stooges (Iggy Pop appeared in Coffee and Cigarettes), and is also in the planning stages for a new music-related film starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, and John Hurt. In addition, he is co-writing an opera about the famed inventor Nikola Tesla.A number of books have been written about Jarmusch, including Jim Jarmusch: Interviews by Ludvig Hertzberg, Jim Jarmusch by Juan Antonio Suarez, and an analysis of Dead Man by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Jarmusch also wrote the foreword to The Best of LCD: The Art and Writing of WFMU-FM 91.1 FM, a collection of writing and artwork from the influential radio zine.