Watch A Louisiana French Renaissance (2018) Online Free
It’s a language and a way of life that reminds us of the past. What was once on the brink of extinction is now in some parts of our state flourishing. CODOFIL, The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana is celebrating its 50th anniversary and through these years has played a major role in the renaissance of Louisiana’s French heritage language and culture.
Cast
Donna LaFleur
More Like This
Lowland Kids
As climate change erases the Louisiana coast, the last two teenagers on Isle de Jean Charles fight to stay on an island that's been in their family home for generations. Feature film continuation of a short of the same name.
2025
Birds of America
In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.
2022
Bad Boy of Bonsai
Bad Boy of Bonsai is an experimental art-house documentary that focuses on Guy Guidry, a Louisiana local, and his passion for bonsai.
2022
I Am One of the People
Harmful chemicals are disproportionately affecting Black communities in Southern Louisiana along the Mississippi River. I am One of the People is an experimental short film exposing the environmental racism of “Cancer Alley.”
2022
Shelter
At the Covenant House, located on the outskirts of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, the doors never close, and there is always room for one more. On any given day, a constant stream of young people carrying everything they own in plastic garbage bags fills the courtyard. The prospective residents are just teenagers, but have already been labeled drug addicts, schizophrenics, criminals and outcasts. As one staff member puts it, “the most damaged population of youth that exists in society today”. Filming over the course of a full year, brothers Brent and Craig Renaud tell the raw and emotional stories of the incredible kids who seek shelter at the Covenant House, and the staff struggling to work miracles everyday on their behalf.
2017
Can't Stop the Water
For 170 years, a Native American community has occupied Isle de Jean Charles, a tiny island deep in the bayous of Louisiana. They have fished, hunted, and lived off the land. Now the land that has sustained them for generations is vanishing before their eyes. Coastal erosion, sea level rise, and increasing storms are overwhelming the island. Over the last fifty years, Isle de Jean Charles has been gradually shrinking, and it is now almost gone. For these Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians, their land is more than simply a place to live. It is the epicenter of their people and traditions. They now must prepare to say goodbye to the place, where, for eight generations, their ancestors cultivated a unique part of Louisiana culture.
2013
Man in the Glass: The Dale Brown Story
Born on Halloween, 1935, Dale Brown's fight for justice began the day his father walked out - two days before he was born. About how an overachiever from tiny Minot, North Dakota relentlessly fought his way to the top.
2012
Saving Pelican 895
HBO Documentary Films Presents the story of the effort to save the 895th surviving oiled pelican in Louisiana, showing how conservationists, government agencies and wildlife activists joined forces to preserve this one life.
2011
The Promised Land: A Swamp Pop Journey
Head to southern Louisiana with filmmaker Matthew Wilkinson to soak up one of the country's best-kept musical secrets: Lil' Band o' Gold, a group of seasoned musicians who churn out an eclectic blend of country, R & B and zydeco known as swamp pop. This lively documentary follows blues-rock legend C.C. Adcock as he scours the marshes and prairies of Acadiana to assemble a supergroup of diverse personalities, backgrounds and musical styles.
2009
Forgotten on the Bayou: Rockey’s Mission to the Whitehouse
On August 29, 2005, Rockey Vaccarella rode out Hurricane Katrina on his roof by holding on to a rope for 4 hours. Rockey and his family lost everything but he refused to give up. Nearly one year after surviving the worst natural disaster in the history of America, Rockey set out on a mission to deliver a message to the President of the United States. Even when most people thought he was crazy, Rockey hooked up his FEMA trailer and journeyed from Louisiana to the White House. By the time he arrived in the nation's capitol, Rockey had captured the attention of America and much of the world. FORGOTTEN ON THE BAYOU is the true story of an unforgettable man who believes that anything is possible.
2007
Hurricane on the Bayou
The film "Hurricane on the Bayou" is about the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.
2006
Don't Worry Honey, I Live Here: How Locals Celebrate Mardi Gras
A cast of legendary New Orleans musicians share their Mardi Gras memories in an insider's look at some of the priceless traditions - off the beaten path for most tourists - that fuel the local Carnival spirit. Shot in New Orleans from 2001- 2003.
2006
The Main Stream
Humorist Roy Blount Jr. takes viewers on a journey down the Mississippi River, showcasing everything from areas with spectacularly beautiful scenery to ugly and dangerously polluted stretches bordered by industrial development.
2002
A Friend in New Orleans
This highly-opinionated guide to eating, drinking, dancing, shopping and lodging in New Orleans was compiled by Chappy Hardy, John Goodman and their "friends" , seasoned New Orleans insiders- without the support of advertisers. Whether bound for Mardi Gras, the Jazz Festival or a meandering tour of one of the most unique cities in the world, A Friend In New Orleans will tell you what not to wear to Galatoire's, where to find crawfish pie (and how to pronounce it) which hotel has a basketball court and other such important miscellany.
1992
Anything I Catch
Louisiana filmmaker, Pat Mire, teams up with veteran filmmaker and cinematographer, Charles Bush, to capture the natural drama of handfishing in this award-winning documentary. Highly visual, the film examines the thrilling regional phenomenon of Cajuns who wade in murky bayou waters to catch huge catfish and turtles by reaching into hollow logs and stumps with their bare hands. Friends and family accompany the handfisherman to the bayou banks for Cajun music, festive cooking, and storytelling, and to witness this increasingly rare tradition. Told from the inside with multiple voices, Mire and Bush explore the chain of events set off by man's attempt to "improve" his environment by dredging bayous in this remarkable study of the relationship between cultural and natural resources.
1990
I Went to the Dance
The definitive film on the history of the toe-tapping, foot-stomping music of French Southwest Louisiana. Includes many Cajun and Zydeco greats, featuring Michael Doucet and Beausoleil, Clifton Chenier, Marc and Ann Savoy, D.L. Menard, and many others.
1989
Huey Long
Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey Long.
1985
Yeah You Rite!
This award winning film is a fast paced, humorous look at the colorful way the residents of New Orleans express themselves - why they talk the way they do, where the words come from, and what it means to talk with a New Orleans accent.
1985
Hot Pepper
A musical portrait of Zydeco King Clifton Chenier, who combines the pulsating rhythms of Cajun dance music and black R&B with African overtones, belting out his irresistible music in the sweaty juke joints of South Louisiana.
1973
Spend It All
Another short documentary of "Real Food, Roots Music, and People Full of Passion for what they do!", Spend It All is Les Blank's spirited look at the French-speaking Cajun community of southwest Louisiana. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
1972