Karla Joan Nelson-Thatcher raced downstairs to the sidewalk outside her Veneto Las Olas apartment and found, waiting near the front steps, what resembled a 3-foot-tall picnic basket on wheels with glowing Pac-Man eyes.

It chirped, as did her phone: She scanned a QR code, the top lid unlocked and she grabbed the prize inside: a still-steaming order of dumplings from nearby Temple Street Eatery.

“It was delivered at the perfect temperature,” she said. “It was easy-peasy. I checked the box for the little robot to make delivery, and they even refunded my tip.”

Meet Fort Lauderdale’s newest restaurant food couriers: automated self-driving robots. Since December, you’ve seen them rolling over train tracks near U.S. Highway 1 and Sunrise Boulevard, roaming Flagler Village and rolling down Las Olas Boulevard, winking their digital eyes at passersby, and bearing names like Gretchen, Phyllis, Julio and Gaspard.

There are just 10 in Fort Lauderdale so far, with plans to widen the artificial-intelligence-powered fleet in coming months, and some are already testing deliveries in pockets of Wilton Manors and Dania Beach, says Ali Kashani, CEO of California-based Serve Robotics, which builds the bassinet-sized carriers and partners with Uber Eats for deliveries.

Why Fort Lauderdale first? “It’s the population density,” Kashani says. “We need lots of residents living close by and infrastructure for robots to get around on sidewalks. Uber also has a big presence there already.”

Elsewhere in Broward County, robots already made their debut at Nova Southeastern University in Davie last April, where slightly shorter versions — picture chest coolers on six wheels — use Grubhub to pick up and drop off Chick-fil-A and Starbucks exclusively to hungry students and faculty. These sleek, stout bots waive orange antennae flags but never leave the sprawling 314-acre campus, says Zubair Hossain, customer success manager for California-based Starship Technologies, which makes the bots.

But Fort Lauderdale, by contrast, marks the first Broward city to welcome the autonomous invasion on public streets and sidewalks — sometimes with disastrous results. At times, these automated robots have been captured on camera looking like lost, doe-eyed puppies, especially when they’re trapped behind bus stops, ramps and pillars, or stand blank-faced at crosswalks, or get into staring contests with trash cans, or drive in glitchy figure-eights on the sidewalk like timid teenagers taking driving tests.

SoFlo TikTok feeds are littered with examples of bizarre robot snafus: Just last month, video caught a Brightline train demolishing one. In another clip, a cute, pink-colored bot with heart-shaped eyes blocked car traffic in the Brickell area, including an ambulance rushing to an emergency. A possibly disgruntled customer tried to pick up one Serve Robotics robot and pitch it into the Miami River in December, but settled for kicking it when that failed. (Social media is also littered with random encounters of robots tipping themselves over.)

When robot bullying goes viral on TikTok, it creates bias and ignores how useful robots can be, Kashani argues.

“There are definitely times when folks aren’t a big fan and react a certain way,” Kashani says. “But they’re reliable. They complete 99.8% of all deliveries. And they make the roads less congested, so what goes viral doesn’t represent what’s happening out there day to day.”

Viral videos of error-prone robots don’t exactly inspire confidence, some local restaurants say, especially when they interfere with business. Adam Shidlofsky, co-owner of Mitch’s Downtown Bagels in Flagler Village, says a Serve bot showed up at his business in December “completely out of the blue, without asking permission.” He used it anyway, because the order came from delivery partner Uber Eats.

“We put someone’s order in the [robot] once and it rolled away, and then its wheels got stuck on the curb,” Shidlofsky says. “I’m like, this food my team works hard to prepare is getting rocked back and forth. We don’t get to control who picks it up, which is why we prefer humans. I don’t want to be a guinea pig for a glitchy robot.”

Serve Robotics, for its part, admits wires do get crossed, and some of the 3,500 restaurants using Uber Eats delivery aren’t informed in advance. “Uber or Serve do communicate the enablement of robot deliveries to merchants, but there is a possibility that certain team members of a merchant are unaware of this program,” Serve spokesperson
Malory Van Guilder said.

If customers are unsatisfied with robot deliveries, they have avenues to fix the issue, according to Uber Eats: “If an autonomous order goes wrong, the customer can contact Uber Eats support directly in the app, like they would for any other order.”

For skeptics who say restaurants handing prepared meals to robots is risky — given that their reputations are tied to how well the meals travel, food temperature and timeliness — human drivers are just as prone to mess-ups, argues Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman.

“Human drivers get bogged down in traffic all the time, delaying the order,” says Glassman, adding that he hasn’t heard robot complaints yet from Flagler Village’s urban professionals living in his district. “I don’t mind us being on the cutting-edge of technology now. At least with robots on sidewalks, it’s removing more cars from the roads.”

For now, at least, some customers and curious commenters remain as skeptical as the restaurants. In the “Let’s Eat, South Florida” Facebook group run by the Sun Sentinel, reactions swing widely from bullish to post-apocalyptic.

“I’ve seen enough ‘Terminator,’ ‘Matrix’ and ‘I, Robot’ to know where this is going,” resident Stephanie Kesten Barber quipped.

“Stop replacing people’s jobs with robots,” poster Christina Marie added.

“I’ve seen them and I’m happy they are helping out,” another commenter, Shari Howard, wrote. “Deliveries are hard to make downtown.”

Q&A: Most-asked questions about food delivery robots

Like it or not, the robot revolution is here, so get used to them sharing Fort Lauderdale’s sidewalks. We asked hospitality experts, restaurant owners, customers and city officials some questions, and here are their answers.

Q: Can customers choose robot delivery over a human driver?

A: Short answer: Yes and no, and it depends on where you live within a delivery radius, says Ali Kashani, CEO of Serve Robotics.

For now, that radius spans Dania Beach north to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and west to Wilton Manors, according to Uber Eats. Customers can toggle between robot or human delivery in the app, but even then a robot isn’t guaranteed, especially if they’re all in use or down for maintenance.

“If you pick one of the restaurants supporting robot delivery, then Uber Eats will decide if a robot is available and assign that robot to you,” Kashani says. “You’d get notification right away that your order is coming via robot, and you track it in real time.”

Q: What security measures do the robots have in place to stop thefts?

A: When robots perceive animosity or tampering from humans, they freeze up, says Marc Crocquet, Nova Southeastern University’s vice president of business services.

“There’s an immobilization,” he says. “An alarm goes off, and then the robot connects to a contact center where a live person can see the situation and monitor.”

Robot lids are kept locked unless a QR code is scanned or a code is entered by the person who ordered, Kashani adds.

At NSU, robots are aided by on-campus security and surveillance “cameras all over campus” to protect students, Crocquet says.

Q: Can you tip a robot?

A: You can’t monetarily tip a robot — yet, Kashani says. For now, tipping is waived on Uber Eats for robot delivery, an incentive so customers pick automated delivery over a human driver.

Q: Gretchen? Phyllis? What’s with the robot names?

A: Simply put, nicknames humanize robots, Kashani says, especially if one “needs assistance on the street and needs to be identified.”

“It’s basically AI with a physical body,” he explains. “AI controls how it behaves, how it navigates among people, and part of that is being predictable. So they try to respect other people’s personal space and match their movement speed to humans nearby.”

Most robo-monikers come from the real names of aunts, uncles, siblings and pets of Serve Robotics employees, he adds, although users can contact the company directly to suggest names, too.

Q: How far can robots deliver food and drink from a restaurant?

A: About a mile away, according to Kashani and Uber Eats say, but up to 2 miles if needed, with the average food delivery taking 18 minutes.

Delivery robots are “pretty well-insulated to keep my food warm,” says Diego Ng, owner of Temple Street Eatery in Fort Lauderdale. “Which is good because if something happens to it, people don’t blame the robots, they blame the restaurants.”

But a mile or two is as far as he’s willing to allow. Any farther and “I will cancel the order,” he says. “I see the robot drives slowly and it stays on driveways, sidewalks, crosswalks, so it can’t handle big distances.”

Q: Will robot delivery take jobs away from human drivers?

A: Yes, if you ask Andrew Moreo, assistant professor of hospitality management at Florida International University.

“Some of the gig economy workers are going to lose out on their deliveries,” Moreo says. “Robots don’t make a wage, so it puts downward pressure on the gig workers.”

It’s easy to fear change, but robots will only make deliveries quicker, argues Peter Ricci, Florida Atlantic University’s director of hospitality and tourism management.

“If they’re faster and safer than human drivers, as a consumer, why wouldn’t I want to use them?” Ricci says. “If it’s saving that operator money and enhancing the experience, why not?”

Still, robot delivery only works well in dense urban cities, not suburbs, says Anil Bilgihan, an FAU professor of marketing and hospitality management.

“It will take a lot of these last-mile delivery issues and solve them,” Bilgihan says. “Because the robots have a short battery life, it won’t replace human drivers for longer distances like in Pembroke Pines or Weston.”

Q: Where’d all these robots come from, anyway?

A: Companies like Serve Robotics, Coco Robotics, Starship Technologies, Pinkbot and Wing are leading South Florida’s autonomous invasion. Before that, delivery robots first rolled out into tech hubs like Silicon Valley and San Francisco post-pandemic before making their debut in downtown Miami and South Beach, Bilgihan says.

So far, restaurants have been slow to adopt them. Only 5% of national restaurants use drones or “autonomous vehicle delivery,” according to 2025 National Restaurant Association 2025 National Restaurant Association data, but 74% say using technology will help human labor instead of replacing it.

Q: What’s with the robots getting stuck on roads and sidewalks and “glitching” out?

A: If a robot glitches out mid-delivery, Kashani says a human being remotely takes over from a Serve command center and manually completes the robot’s intended destination using controls.

“Our team can remotely log in and kind of help it out,” he says. “And if that doesn’t work, there are pedestrians nearby who can go assist the robot.”

Robots won’t glitch out forever, adds FAU’s Ricci.

“AI constantly adapts,” he says. “In the future, when palm fronds fall in front of it, or a dog crosses the street, or FPL trucks are fixing power lines, robot AI will learn to find different routes.”

Q: Where will we see autonomous delivery robots showing up next? 

A: Uber Eats, Starship Technologies and Serve Robotics declined to say, although there are plans to roll out more robots in Fort Lauderdale soon, Kashani says.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the delivery provider at Nova Southeastern University in Davie and one of its food retailers. They utilize the Grubhub app for orders from Chick-fil-A and Starbucks.

Many descendants have taken on the role of storytelling, but educators still face a challenge: How do you teach the history in a way that is engaging to students?

Two local artists turned to music.

Musician Jeff Jacob proposed the idea of a songwriting session for students — using Holocaust survivor testimonies to create an original, fully produced piece — to Ali Shrago-Spechler, a visual artist who is director of The George Gottlieb Institute at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie.

Together, they created “A Survivor’s Song” and offered it to history students from Cooper City High School and Everglades High School and their teachers through the Gottlieb Institute’s Testimony to Teach program.

“What better way to embody history than through music?” Shrago-Spechler said. “I think it’s a fantastic vehicle because it allows the kids to engage in every way. They are hearing it, writing it, singing it and, in that way, the history becomes a part of them and they become witnesses to it.”

The students sat through two initial sessions where they heard testimonies from first-, second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors. They then participated in a live songwriting session on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the David Posnack JCC. With a small stage and mood lighting, Jacob set it up to look and feel like an MTV “Unplugged” session from back in the day.

Students took what they learned from the survivor stories to write song verses alongside first-generation survivor Ivan Gluck. The result was a fully-produced song titled “You Can Be a Candle.”

Song lyrics include poignant parts of the survivor’s experience, such as: “In the basement my life spared, tomorrow another day to fear,” and “Can’t find my slumber, with others in distress. We still held belief, cause we held each other dear.”

After the writing was complete, the students recorded parts of the song in an on-site mobile music studio, alongside local musicians and JCC staff.

“Bringing people together from all these walks of life felt really beautiful and impactful,” said Jacob, who has spent the past decade focused on purpose-driven music. “When it was done, I had such a rush of joy feeling like most people in this room were hopefully going to walk away with a memory that maybe they retain a little bit better and speak out when [they] see something like this happening in the future.”

How it started

Through Testimony to Teach, Shrago-Spechler uses different art forms to explain the story of the Holocaust to students.

The program began two years ago with Broward County students creating a short film based on Holocaust testimonies. Shrago-Spechler felt the students weren’t as immersed in the process as she would have liked.

“I just find when you’re dealing with hard histories, it can be really difficult to make a lasting impact on the kids,” she said. “ When you’re dealing with intense ideas and sad ideas, a lot of the time your brain kind of blocks the trauma off to protect you so the kids don’t end up engaging as much.”

And with visual art, she added, kids can be critical of themselves if they feel they aren’t artistic. Songwriting, however, was a perfect fit for the program.

“With music, anyone can write a song or write a verse or do rhythm, so we felt like it was a great way to bring this history to the kids,” she added.

A lasting impression

Before involving the students, Jacob, who is also the executive director of Temple Beth El of Hollywood, created the chorus, which he used as the jumping-off point for the live songwriting session.

He sang lead vocals alongside a band of six others, including Timothy LaRoque from the nonprofit Guitars over Guns, and Don Hicks, who plays the fiddle and is part of the Jewgrass Revival band at Temple Beth El.

In addition to the song, Jacob also plans to create accompanying videos. One will be a 3.5-minute music video with imagery from the live songwriting session, the other will be a longer mini music documentary that will include interviews and more insight into the program. The song and music video are expected to be released on all major streaming platforms for Yom HaShoah in April.

Jacob and Shrago-Spechler hope the song, and similar initiatives, will help connect students to the history of the Holocaust in a more profound way.

“After [the songwriting session], I was buzzing,” said Shrago-Spechler. “This is why I do this work — when you can see the impact it has on the kids and how they are going to talk to friends and how they stand up to hate.”

And the efforts continue. Shrago-Spechler has more programs in the works to bring Holocaust education to Broward County schools, including a May 7 event with culinary historian Michael Twitty, who wrote the book, “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew.”

“It feels empowering to make some kind of impact in Broward County,” she said. “We can’t fight antisemitism all over the world, but if we can make a difference in our county, that’s really important.”

This will be the 40th annual edition of the festival, and change is a theme: Along with its new home in February, FLIFF will be a leaner affair, with a nip here and a tuck there, some changes having been long discussed, other moves coming in response to cuts in state and federal support.

This also will be the first festival in more than 30 years not curated with help from former FLIFF president and CEO Gregory Von Hausch, who left shortly before the 2024 festival to take a job in Hawaii. The 2025 festival was postponed until this year.

FLIFF 40 will show more than 50 features and documentaries at venues across Broward County, with most high-profile screenings taking place at Savor Cinema in downtown Fort Lauderdale. For those keeping score, the 50+ films represent less than half of the lineup at FLIFF last time out.

But FLIFF managing director Hal Axler says the number is misleading: Many of the short films that would typically plump up the festival were redirected to FLIFF’s new Savoir-faire Shorts Film Festival, which showed more than 100 titles across four days in November.

There will be no repeat of 2024’s celebrity-packed, opening-night gala at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood — in its place this year will be a red-carpet block party at Savor Cinema for a Feb. 21 showing of “Miami Nights,” with stars Terrence Howard, Danay Garcia and other cast members on hand.

The historic romance of Savor Cinema — in a building more than 75 years old that once housed the First Methodist Church of Fort Lauderdale — is more consistent with the intimate art-house atmosphere of FLIFF, Axler says.

“Everyone loves Savor,” he says.

The nonprofit festival has long been a showcase for global filmmakers and art-house titles. It was among the first U.S. venues to screen “The Artist,” a French-Belgian silent film that went on to win the Best Picture Oscar in 2012. But FLIFF 40 seems intent on being accessible to a wider audience.

Among the unique events will be a free screening on Monday, Feb. 23, of “Mr. Goalie,” a documentary about the late NHL Hall Of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall, on the ice at the Florida Panthers’ Baptist Health IcePlex. A screening of the documentary “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not” will include a “Caddyshack”-themed party with Chase in attendance.

The lineup also includes a wacky comedy about wrestling fans starring Paula Abdul and a comic showdown between Paul Reiser and Colm Meaney set in Ireland, as well as compelling documentaries about heroes of the Holocaust and the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

“There’s a really strong variety, everything from some very serious documentaries and topical feature films, but also a lot of really good, just fun comedy films as well. I think the variety is maybe broader than it’s been,” says Axler, who curated the festival with longtime FLIFF film programmer Rob Davis.

The move of FLIFF from its traditional November window to February is also an attempt to be more convenient for filmgoers, Axler says. The change, which he says had been under consideration for several years, removes the festival from the distraction of elections, hurricane-related travel issues and the shadow of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

“We’re certainly thrilled so far with the way ticket sales are going,” Axler says. Indeed, by the time you read this, films scheduled with appearances by Chase, Reiser and Harvey are likely to be sold out. Additional screenings for some films are being added.

Here are things to know before you go to FLIFF 40, including a list of standout films and events to see.

Tickets

Prices vary by film, with general-admission tickets for typical screenings ranging from $6 to $13. Films with receptions and other special features may carry an extra charge. Memberships, which come with discounted tickets to films and other events, start at $100. For more information on tickets, visit FLIFF.com or call the Savor Cinema box office at 954-525-3456.

Venues

Savor Cinema: 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale
Cinema Paradiso: 2008 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
Paragon Theaters Ridge: 9200 W. State Road 84, Davie
Paragon Theaters Deerfield Beach:  3984 W. Hillsboro Blvd., Deerfield Beach
African American Research Library and Cultural Center: 2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
Alvin Sherman Library, Nova Southeastern University: 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd., Davie
Flamingo Gardens: 3750 S. Flamingo Road, Davie
Baptist Health IcePlex: 800 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale
AutoNation IMAX Theater at Museum of Discovery & Science: 401 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale

Highlights

Among myriad films and events on the schedule at FLIFF 40, here are a baker’s dozen worth noting, in chronological order. Unless otherwise noted, all of these screenings are at Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale. Many of these films and others will have multiple screenings throughout the festival. A complete schedule can be found at FLIFF.com.

“Inside the Oasis”: Friday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. World premiere of a 47-minute documentary subtitled “The Story of South Florida’s Gay Mecca,” which traces more than 60 years of history in Wilton Manors and Broward County as an LGBTQ+ “oasis.” Actor Sharon Gless narrates, describing the film as “a tribute and warning of what was, what is and what could be again.” Among the locals appearing in the film are U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, State Sen. Shevrin Jones and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis. Director Andy Perrott is scheduled to attend. Tickets: $8.

“Miami Nights”: Saturday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. FLIFF’s formal opening-night feature is a crime thriller, shot on location in Miami, about two dishonorably discharged war heroes whose attempt to rebuild their lives draws them into a plot to steal a diamond. It stars Terrence Howard (Oscar nominated in “Hustle & Flow”), Jeremy Sumpter, Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven and Danay Garcia, with an original score by Serj Tankian, Grammy-winning frontman of System of a Down. This world-premiere screening will be preceded at 6 p.m. by red-carpet arrivals at Savor Cinema, with a post-film block party and a Q&A session with Howard, Sumpter, Garcia and cast members Sydelle Noel and Manu Bennett. Tickets: $50.

“Raging Midlife”: Saturday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m., Paragon Deerfield Beach. A screwball comedy about two midlifers on a quest to recover “the greatest trophy in entertainment sports history” — a tank top from their favorite old-school wrestler, Raging Abraham Lincoln. If that were not enough, its stars include Paula Abdul, Eddie Griffin and Walter Koenig, the original Chekov of “Star Trek” fame. Says Axler: “It’s just a really, really funny comedy about, you know, these two 40-year-olds who are obsessing over a wrestler from the 1980s and trying to meet him. That’s what I mean when I talk about variety. It’s the least likely film you’d be expecting to play at a film festival.” Director Rob Taylor and co-writer Nic Costa are expected to be on hand for the screening and a Q&A session, joined by cast members Bryna Smith and Matt Zak. Tickets: $6.

“My Underground Mother”: Sunday, Feb. 22, at noon. An extraordinary documentary from journalist Marisa Fox, who discovered that her late mother, a New York doctor’s wife who always claimed she fled Poland in time to avoid the Holocaust, had kept a secret until the end. In researching a story that spans the globe, Fox uncovers her mother’s true experience from Nazi slave to freedom fighter, from refugee to spy and saboteur. Says Axler: “She finds out … that her mother kind of had a heroic role during the Holocaust. You know, one of those things you don’t find out until after the fact, as we do with our parents, it seems. … I love anything about history and I love the storytelling in that one.” Fox is scheduled to take part in a post-screening Q&A session. Tickets: $13.

“Land of the Mustaches”: Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m. This compelling autobiographical documentary by actor and writer Rutanya Alda (“The Deer Hunter,” “Mommie Dearest”) recounts her experience as a child growing up in refugee camps with her mother and grandmother after World War II, starving and stateless, and how she triumphed over this dark history. The screening and 1:30 p.m. reception will include a special guest appearance by Alda. Tickets: $6.

“Mr. Goalie”: Sunday, Feb. 22, 4 p.m. at Savor Cinema; Monday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m. at Baptist Health IcePlex. Documentary by Florida Atlantic University graduate Ryan McInerney on the life and career of NHL Hall of Famer Glenn Hall, who played goaltender without wearing a mask. Hall died in January at age 94. The film will make its U.S. debut on Feb. 22 with McInerney joined by NHL legends Scotty Bowman and Gerry Cheevers, among others. On Feb. 23, the Florida Panthers will host a free 7 p.m. screening at the IcePlex with numerous NHL players expected to attend the film and after-party. They include legendary goaltenders Martin Brodeur, Grant Fuhr, Darren Pang and Mike Vernon, as well as NHL Hall of Famer Mark Recchi and former Panthers general manager Dale Tallon. Tickets for the Feb. 22 screening cost $20; the Feb. 23 screening is free.

“Uvalde Mom”: Sunday, Feb. 22, at 5 p.m., Paragon Theaters Deerfield Beach. A profile of Angeli Gomez, a mother who captured national attention when, in the face of police inaction, she rushed into an elementary school to save her two sons from a mass shooting that left 21 dead in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022. Gomez is expected to attend the screening in its Florida premiere with filmmaker Anayansi Prado, who also wrote and produced the film. Tickets: $13.

“California Scenario”: Sunday, Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m. A story of intergenerational trauma and healing told through the eyes of a Japanese American father whose forebears were incarcerated during World War II and a Jewish-American mother descended from Holocaust survivors. A pre-show reception at 5:30 p.m. will include cast members Will Yun Lee (“The Good Doctor”), Jon Huertas (“This Is Us”), Brooklynn Prince (“The Florida Project”) and Abby Miller (“Home Before Dark”), along with director James Takata. Tickets: $13.

“The Problem With People”: Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7:30 p.m. A culture-clash comedy set in a small town in Ireland about cousins previously unknown to each other — one from America (Paul Reiser) and one from Ireland (Colm Meaney) — and a simmering family dispute that they seem committed to making worse. Reiser (“Diner,” “Mad About You,” “Stranger Things”) is scheduled to be on hand for an Irish-themed party at 6:30 p.m. and a post-film discussion led by writer-comedian Wil Shriner. Tickets: $40.

“Hello Beautiful”: Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. Based on model and breast cancer survivor Christine Handy’s novel “Walk Beside Me,” the film follows a model, Willow (Tricia Helfer of “Battlestar Galactica”), on her journey after a breast cancer diagnosis. The cast also includes Tarek Bishara (“Law & Order SVU”) and Susan Shalhoub Larkin (“Stranger Things,” “Sleepy Hollow”). The evening will include a 6:30 p.m. reception and book signing with Handy and director Ziad H. Hamzeh. Tickets: $20.

“I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not”: Thursday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. This deeply human documentary about flawed and enigmatic film and “Saturday Night Live” icon Chevy Chase, from CNN Films, is one of the must-see films of FLIFF 40. The evening will include a “Caddyshack”-themed, red-carpet arrival at 6 p.m. and a post-film Q&A session with Chase, recipient of the 2026 FLIFF Lifetime Achievement Award, and intrepid filmmaker Marina Zenovich. Tickets: $40.

“Wingman”: Friday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. This comedy, directed by actor-comedian Harland Williams, follows a stuck-in-the-’80s wingman-for-hire struggling to find hook-ups for his clients. Comedians Jamie Kennedy and Russell Peters co-star. The screening will include a 6:30 p.m. reception and post-film Q&A session with Kennedy, as well as co-writer Justin Levine. Tickets: $15.

“Guy Harvey: The Documentary”: Saturday, Feb. 28, at 6:30 p.m., Museum of Discovery & Science, Fort Lauderdale. This dazzling documentary follows Guy Harvey from his boyhood in Jamaica, fishing and creating sketches of the majestic blue marlin, through his training as a marine biologist and evolution into a famous wildlife artist and prominent advocate for ocean conservation at the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center at Nova Southeastern University. The world-premiere screening on the IMAX screen at MODS includes red-carpet arrivals at 5:30 p.m., cocktails and a Q&A after-party with Harvey and director Nick Nanton. Tickets: $50 (sold out); tickets for a second screening at 2 p.m. March 1 cost $13.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.

As of late afternoon, several lanes of the highway were still closed to traffic as an emergency crew cleaned up the spill just ahead of the daily rush hour for West Broward residents.

The accident occurred shortly before 9 a.m. at Davie Road near the interstate highway’s complex interchange with Florida’s Turnpike.

Drivers from each truck were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Shortly after 9 a.m., the Town of Davie Police Department advised motorists on its X social media account that “I595 westbound is shut down at Davie Road and all other onramps east of Davie Road due to a traffic crash.”

“A straight tanker truck transporting fuel rear ended a van then rolled onto its side spilling the majority of the 4,000 gallons of fuel,” Lt. Indiana Miranda, public information officer for the Florida Highway Patrol, said in an email. “A semi-truck swerved to avoid, struck the tanker, then another vehicle.”

She said traffic was rerouted onto U.S. 441.

A fire technical rescue team from the Broward Sheriff’s Office was summoned to stop the fuel leak, which reached the roadway’s drainage system.

The Davie teenager, 17, sought a solution.

She suggested a no-sugar challenge for two weeks, and it not only helped her grandmother, but also led her to a new passion: nutrition. That’s how Elevate Health was born.

The nonprofit Elevate Health offers free learning programs and challenges that aim to make nutrition easy and help others with their health journey. Elitzur, who is the founder and executive director, works closely with Elevate Health’s Board of Directors, which includes nutritionist Meryl Brandwein and Dr. Zori Rabinovitz, a periodontist and implantologist.

The hard work has earned recognition. Elevate Health was honored last year by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and during Harvard University’s Global Vision Health Conference, where Elitzur was a finalist.

Her passion projects don’t stop there. Elevate Health has also led Elitzur to write a children’s book titled, “A Girl’s Guide to Nutrition, Self-Love, and Wellbeing” (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, $8.99) and to release a health-focused podcast. All this while still a senior at David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie.

We spoke with Elitzur to learn more about her nonprofit and her ambitions. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What inspired you to learn about health and wellness? 

A: It started for my grandmother. She was dealing with chemotherapy for breast cancer, and she was exhausted all the time. I saw that fatigue, and she said she thought that part of her issue was processed sugar, because she was constantly having sugar cravings and she would have a crash each time she’d eat something.

I was having conversations with her about nutrition, and we thought that maybe if we quit processed sugar together, it would be a nice way for us to bond but also help each other out. We started sending each other messages checking in on each other and motivating each other. We just did it for two weeks, and I could already see how she felt more energized, and I could see how it was having an effect on both of us.

Q: What prompted you to start a nonprofit? 

A: I wanted to share this two-week, no-sugar challenge with others. I automated a challenge so people could enter their email and it would send in a progress check and motivate them. I created a personalized video for every day of the challenge with tips and motivation. So many in my community started doing it. So I started sharing it across Reddit, Facebook and Twitter.

It started as a two-week, no-processed-sugar challenge but I wanted to expand it further. I wanted to educate about nutrition more broadly. I started writing health articles about the harms of processed sugar. I registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and started [partnering] with different companies to gain fundraising. I have sponsorships from a variety of companies and that’s really helped me grow further. I also created a health podcast on YouTube called “ElevateHealthChallenge,” where I interview health professionals to give participants a broader understanding of different dietary and lifestyle choices they could pick up.

Q: Tell me more about Elevate Health. What is its mission? 

A: To reach as many people as I can who didn’t know that there was so much information on nutrition out there. I take complex health ideas from research and make it easy to understand so people feel empowered to start on a health journey.

Q: Your nonprofit has been awarded and recognized by important people and organizations. How does it feel to be honored for your work?

A: It feels very rewarding because I definitely have spent hours and hours of my time on this. And not only is it inspiring to see how it’s helping so many people, but that I’m receiving so much recognition for the help that it’s creating, it feels great.

One of them was at the Harvard Global Health and Leadership Conference. I pitched Elevate Health when it was still growing and I worked with a mentor at Harvard University who helped me with the pitch and they loved Elevate Health and all it stood for. I think people also like seeing a teenager involved with nutrition. More adults tend to want to go into this field.

Q: You also wrote a children’s book?

A: It’s a princess-themed story for elementary-school girls where I’m able to teach young girls about feeling confident, but also the power of fruits and veggies while they are growing. I’m trying to  help young girls believe that their worth isn’t tied to a number on a scale or how they look. It’s about feeling empowered and inspired through nutrition.

The book was inspired when I was a counselor and working with [young] girls. I heard them talking about dieting and losing weight, and I felt there was a better way for them to approach nutrition than focusing solely on weight and talking about nutrition in a healthier way.

Q: As a high school student, how do you balance school and nonprofit work?

A: There’s a lot of scheduling in my calendar. I’m constantly trying to allocate my time in the most efficient way. I try to wake up earlier so I can work on Elevate Health and, in the afternoons, I spend time on college applications and taekwondo. I am trying to be a black belt.

Q: How do you feel your Judaism has impacted your passion for helping others?

A: I feel like it’s impacted me in so many different ways. Growing up going to a Jewish school, I was taught values of Kavod and respect for others. That’s a large part of it — I want people to not only have respect for others but have respect for themselves. I want them to love themselves and feel confident in themselves. And I’ve been able to help them do that with Elevate Health.

Q: What are your future plans regarding Elevate Health and your career aspirations? 

A: I want to study public health and go deeper into this field. I’ve already been involved through internships with local functional medicine nutritionists in South Florida and broader health tech companies. This past summer, I lived in Boston and worked with LymeAlert, which is a company helping with Lyme disease.

I’m looking to grow Elevate Health even further. I’ve been working with Yonathan Gal, 16, a junior at my school to create an app. We were just awarded honorable mention by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Congressional App Challenge for the Elevate Health app. We are in the process of publishing the app on the App Store. I am looking forward to carrying Elevate with me wherever I go.

To learn more about the nonprofit, visit elevate-health.org. 

Black Jack’s Rum Bar & Grille dropped anchor in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village on Monday, Jan. 26, with a gastropub menu of burgers, salads, prime-rib sandwiches and a rum wall stocked with 380 rare bottles. It’s Crosby and Twining’s second port-of-call in a year, after their flagship Black Jack’s debuted last January in Davie’s Zona Village apartment complex.

Aside from a Jolly Roger-inspired logo above the entrance, the pirate decor stops at Black Jack’s front door. Those expecting a dining room strung with ship riggings, rusty anchors and more buccaneer-chic theming will instead find a clean industrial space with wood-stained tables, flat-screen TVs, brass lantern lights and aquamarine epoxy floors that evoke the ocean. And that’s intentional, Crosby says.

“We decided we didn’t want it to feel tacky like a Disney attraction,” Crosby tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I wanted people to feel like they’re on Exuma Island in the Bahamas. I wanted to elevate it and fill it with a menu with Caribbean influences, because most rums are made in the Caribbean.”

Black Jack’s expects to be docked downtown for a while, Crosby says. Her father, Fort Lauderdale restaurateur Ted Sabarese, originally signed a 10-year lease in 2023 for the freestanding building on Northeast Third Avenue, across the street from Peter Feldman Park, while it was under construction. (Sabarese, now 85, is semi-retired and leaves the day-to-day operation of Black Jack’s to Crosby and Twining.)

Twining and Crosby took a circuitous route to running a rummy pirate tavern. The son of a Baltimore minister, Twining was raised in a conservative Christian family and majored in classical voice and Bible ministry at Pennsylvania’s Lancaster Bible College. After graduating, he bartended for the next 16 years, which took him from California to Delaware to Florida.

Crosby, a New Jersey native, went from a career track in marine biology to breeding horses on her Davie farm while managing and bartending restaurants owned by Sabarese and his late business partner John Amodeo (The Drunken Taco, Giovanni’s Coal Fire Pizza, Margarita Cafe, Oasis Cafe). After Amodeo’s death in 2022, she took over her father’s restaurants, she says, but now she and Twining operate the two Black Jack’s locations exclusively.

The menu is identical to the Davie original, which brightens American gastropub fare with Caribbean flavors. Dishes include sous vide-cooked Baby Back Ribs, finished on the chargrill and coated in passionfruit rum barbecue sauce, and a 10-ounce Pacific Islander Grilled Pork Chop glazed with sweet-and-sour huli-huli, a piquant fusion of pineapple, sour orange, garlic and ginger. There’s also Ropa Vieja with fried sweet plantains and a 10-ounce churrasco-style steak accented with chimichurri.

Sides include Bahamian-style peas and rice, garlic mashed potatoes and jumbo asparagus.

Black Jack’s also carries Bahamian conch fritters, pork-belly chicharrones, chorizo paella, Argentine choripanes (grilled chorizo sandwiches), a chargrilled frita Cubana (a beef-chorizo blend burger topped with potato straws, lettuce and spicy ketchup) and Black Jack’s Fish + Chips (a 10-ounce snapper filet with coleslaw, steak fries and lemon-cilantro aioli.

Twining and Crosby say they will soon add weekly specials that mirror their Davie counterpart, including all-you-can-eat fish and chips on Mondays and a $25 prime rib-and-shrimp combo on Wednesdays.

“Fort Lauderdale is a carbon copy of Davie,” Twining says. “We’ve got about nine rum distributors and we carry pretty much everything. Aged and premium, white and unaged, rums distilled in pot stills and wooden column stills from Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana.”

Their most expensive rums? That would be the 30-year Flor de Caña, a Nicaraguan single-barrel that costs $160 per two-ounce shot (or $1,000 for the bottle); and Black Tot Last Consignment, a Caribbean blend created by the British Royal Navy, with notes of vanilla and black fruit with a woody tobacco finish. That’s $150 per two-ounce shot, Twining says.

There are 13 cocktails and six mocktails, from Davie Jones’ Locker (a blend of Martinique’s Saint James, Indonesia’s Nusa Caña and Barbados’ Planteray rums plus orgeat, flaming lime and pineapple) to the Monkey Bite (scotch, spiced pear liqueur, ginger beer and dehydrated pear) to a virgin cucumber gimlet (muddled cucumber, lime, club soda).

“At our core, we’re an American grill,” Twining says. “But everything is designed to be paired with a pirate’s favorite drink: rum.”

Black Jack’s Rum Bar & Grille, at 505 NE Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale, opened on Monday, Jan. 26. Go to BlackJacksRumBar.com.

The woman, a 20-year-old student at the beauty school, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the police department.

The shooter, a 25-year-old man, also shot himself, Officer Brittany Vezina, a spokesperson for Davie Police, said in a statement Wednesday. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

Police had not released their names as of Wednesday afternoon.

The beauty school is in the area of multiple other schools, including Know-It-All Preparatory School and Tutoring Center. Officers put the schools in the area on lockdown about 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to archived police radio transmissions.

Sun Sentinel staff writer Angie DiMichele contributed to this report.

Delores Bailey, 24, was alone working an overnight shift at the 7-Eleven in the 1600 block of North 18th Avenue in Hollywood on Jan. 21, 1982, when she disappeared in the early morning hours.

There was no indication that she fought against whoever entered the store that morning. Some of her belongings were left behind, Davie Police Cold Case Detective Eddy Velazquez told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. A police officer who was in the area doing routine patrol had seen Bailey working alone, and less than half an hour later, a customer found the store empty and alerted police, Velazquez said.

There was no development in the case until her remains were found 11 months later in a wooded, rural area just east of the Florida’s Turnpike, south of Griffin Road in Davie.

An employee of a tree trimming service found the skeleton while working in the area on Dec. 8,1982, the Fort Lauderdale News reported at the time. Investigators determined she had been shot in the head three times.

Velazquez began working on the case within the last month and plans to send different pieces of clothes that were found at the scene to private labs that conduct advanced DNA testing.

Broward County Crime Stoppers is now offering a $5,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest.

Bailey was killed in the area where her remains were found, Velazquez said. She had moved to the area from Pennsylvania only a couple of months earlier.

Bailey had separated from her husband before moving south alone. Their son was young when she moved, Bailey’s niece Melissa Mcbride, 39, of Pennsylvania, told the Sun Sentinel. Once she moved to South Florida, her aunt lived with a woman she was in a romantic relationship with.

While different family members have shared different accounts of why, Bailey wanted to move back home to Pennsylvania not long before she disappeared, Mcbride, whose mother is Bailey’s sister, said.

“She had called her father to send money down, to bring her back home, and he didn’t have the means to send any money down to her,” she said. “And shortly after, she was missing from the store.”

7-Eleven offered a $25,000 reward for information leading shortly after Bailey disappeared, the equivalent of about $100,000 today, Velazquez said.

Her disappearance came less than six months after the high-profile abduction in the same town of 6-year-old Adam Walsh from the Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall.

“We had a lot of serial killers back then,” Velazquez said.

It’s unknown whether the abduction was at random or by someone she knew, he said.

Detectives early on ruled out robbery as a motive as only $30 was missing from the cash register and hundreds of dollars remained in the store’s safe, the Fort Lauderdale News reported in June 1982. For months after Bailey’s disappearance, investigators tried to track down the customer who found the store empty to no avail, the newspaper reported.

Though Mcbride wasn’t born until four years after her aunt disappeared, her mother made sure she knew who Bailey was. Mcbride has now done the same for her own daughter, Bailey’s great-niece.

When Mcbride learned in November that Velazquez would be revisiting the case, she was skeptical the call was even real, she recalled.

“I thanked him …  This has been a question in my family and it haunts us,” she said. “It’s been a thorn in our sides trying to figure out what happened and who did it.”

Davie Police have had breakthroughs in multiple cold cases in recent years due to advancements in DNA testing and technology. Last October, DNA testing identified the man suspected in the 1987 murder of Marilyn Decker. Velazquez said the suspect in Decker’s case, who died in 1995, could be tied to similar unsolved homicides in South Florida.

In 2023, the remains of a woman that went unidentified for nearly 40 years were determined to be those of Lori Jane Kearsey, of Gloucester, Mass., who was married to a member of a notorious Boston crime family.

In 2021, Carolyn Dunn Moudy was identified as the woman whose body Davie Police found floating in a canal in 1975 after exhuming her body from Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens cemetery in Davie in 2019.

Antibiotic resistance has become an increasingly fatal problem that South Florida college students are trying to solve.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 2019, antimicrobial resistance killed 1.27 million people worldwide and nearly 5 million deaths were associated with infections caused by drug-resistant organisms. Research has shown that this number is projected to increase to 10 million per year by 2050, greatly exceeding deaths from cancer.

In this landscape, a Nova Southeastern University professor and her class of 40 students are conducting research and searching for the next new antibiotic. For students, being part of the Tiny Earth network of student researchers is more than just a course: They become scientists working to address a global challenge while cultivating a sense of belonging in the field of science and within their local communities.

Students test soil from around the NSU campus or their backyards.

“Some students have found bacteria that are producing antibiotic-like compounds,” said Dr. Aarti Raja, the NSU professor teaching the course. “We are working to identify what these bacteria are and the composition of the compounds they are producing.”

The concept of crowdsourcing antibiotic discovery has opened the possibility of finding a solution to this global challenge. Leveraging this model allows entire classes of students — not just one or two students — to engage in research.

“Students often speak about how research plays an important role in their career path and express genuine interest in engaging in the work,” Raja said. “For many students, there is a great thrill in owning a project, being involved in a global effort, and the possibility of discovering something novel.”

NSU in Davie is among 540 institutions, 800 faculty, and 16,000 students worldwide working to find a solution to the antibiotic resistance crisis that affects care in hospitals and narrows medical treatment options. Students work through a semester or beyond on their research.

“I was able to create pamphlets and talk about antibiotic resistance with my family, and help people understand the importance of it and why it should be taken seriously,” said Jennifer Vargas, a junior at NSU in Davie. “I hope the pamphlets I created in English and Spanish will help patients.”

The students will disseminate their research findings to their peers, the university community, and the global network of researchers. Some students will go on to present their work at an international conference of scientists.

In the U.S., the CDC estimates that 2.8 million infections annually are caused by antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms, and 35,000 people die from such infections. Compounding this, the World Health Organization notes that the development and approval of antibiotics have dwindled over the years to 1.2 agents per year globally.

Along with health concerns, combating antimicrobial resistance, called AMR, has economic impacts, creating high costs for both health systems and national economies overall. For example, it creates a need for more expensive and intensive care for patients, leads to prolonged hospital stays, and harms agricultural productivity.

Many of the students will continue to medical school, and as physicians treating patients will face the real-life concerns with antibiotic resistance.

“This was my first experience with hands-on research,” said Jaelyn Freeston, an NSU junior. “I am grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to something meaningful and important in the real world.”

This article was contributed as a collaboration between the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Mako Media Institute at Nova Southeastern University.

In one incident Wednesday morning, an FHP trooper stopped a black dump truck pulling a trailer advertising Bethel Lawn Service and Landscaping on westbound Griffin Road between University Drive and South Pine Island Road in Davie.

Three workers were in the truck. As the trooper began checking driver’s licenses, two of the occupants ran away, according to one of the owners, who asked that the South Florida Sun Sentinel not print her name.

The owner said the workers were Guatemalan and undocumented, but she was not aware of any of them having criminal records.

“If they see you and you’re Spanish they’re stopping you all this week,” the owner said. “We don’t do anything, we just want to work and get a better life, that’s all.”

Less than a half-hour after the initial traffic stop, law enforcement agents handcuffed one of the occupants of the lawn service truck. Authorities did not provide the Sun Sentinel with information about who he was or what he was suspected of doing.

ICE did not confirm its presence at the arrest, but one of the agents’ body armor was marked with “ERO” identifying him as Enforcement and Removal Operations, working as an ICE agent.

On the south side of Griffin, Elder Sanchez watched and took pictures. He and his cousin are co-owners of Bethel. Sanchez said he had been following ICE and FHP activity since the day before, when reports began to emerge about what appeared to be an enforcement crackdown.

“I didn’t know they had stopped our truck until I pulled over here,” he said, standing on the sidewalk just a few yards away from his truck as it was being hooked up to a tow truck. “The trooper told me he pulled them over for a tail light violation and as he was running the license, they booked it.”

Several Davie residents posted that agents appeared to be pulling over landscaping trucks.

One video that appeared on social media on Tuesday shows masked agents and FHP troopers pulling over what appears to be a landscaping truck in Davie.

Jennifer Sowinski, who filmed the video, had just dropped her kids off at school on Tuesday when she saw police activity along Orange Drive. When she looped around, she saw agents who she said looked like ICE and began recording.

Sowinski had seen many videos of immigration agents detaining people online, but it was shocking to see it happen in her neighborhood, she said.

“It just makes it more of a reality in life,” she said. “This is really happening, this is not a joke, this is not a game. This is literally happening right in our neighborhood. It’s happening all over Davie.”

A spokesperson for ICE referred a reporter to Florida Highway Patrol for comment. Florida Highway Patrol did not respond to questions about whether it is conducting operations in the area or the incident involving workers who ran away.

Throughout the day Tuesday and Wednesday, residents posted on social media and neighborhood apps where they had spotted ICE and other law enforcement agencies and posted warnings.

“ICE pulling over landscapers off 136th and 595,” one wrote. “ICE and increased police presence around douglas,” another said. “be safe!!”

Sanchez said he watched a handful of enforcement operations on Tuesday. A trooper would start by pulling a car over and getting the driver’s license, he said. “If everything is legal, he lets them go. If not, he calls ICE.” Federal agents are usually minutes away, he said.