A Friend in New Orleans

In 2007 Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is celebrated... and complicated. Following a cast of characters, parades, and parties across an enduring color line, we see that beneath the surface of pageantry lies something else altogether.

In King Crawfish, we watch the Cajun spirit being poured out on a communal table even as the wild harvest is diminishing. At the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival we see everthing Cajuns value take to the stage: their language, music, food, and crawfish. As the film traces the thousands of pounds of crawfish served up at the festival to their natural habitat, the Atchafalaya Basin, fishermen from Catahoula tel stories of their fight to retain their way of life. It is an old story in Louisiana: the pople and land suffer from the exploitation of the oil companies. What is at stake is the loss of the most productive swamp in the world and the people's connection to that land.

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.

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.

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.

The film "Hurricane on the Bayou" is about the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.

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.

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Take to the streets of New Orleans by horse drawn carriage and visit some of the city's most popular attractions including a stop at Café Dumond, the French Quarter & Jackson Square. At the School of Cooking you'll learn as much about history as you will food. In the evening, Bourbon Street comes alive with jazz musicians and tourists. Journey by rail on the country's oldest streetcars past the elegant and historic mansions of the Garden District. Birdwatchers delight in the Creole Nature Trail where dozens of species of exotic birds can be seen including spoonbills and different types of ibis.

Through the eyes of urban planners, community organizers, displaced youth, immigrant workers, and public housing residents, this verité-style documentary reveals how the story of New Orleans is the story of urban America: how democratic processes can fail us, how economic crisis can pull the rug out from under us, and how (im)migration can prove to be a complicated bargain. As cities all over the world struggle to recover from disaster, whether economic, natural, or man-made, the lessons of post-Katrina New Orleans have only become more urgent.

A film created by Les Blank and Maureen Gosling from footage that was cut from the documentary "Always for Pleasure" (1978) about Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

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.

The feature-length documentary, TOOTIE’S LAST SUIT explores the complex relationships, rituals, history, and music of New Orleans’ vibrant Mardi Gras Indian culture while telling the story of Allison “Tootie” Montana, former Chief of Yellow Pocahontas Hunters. Celebrated throughout the New Orleans as “the prettiest,” for the beauty and inventiveness of his elaborately beaded Mardi Gras costumes, Tootie Montana masked for 52 years, longer than any other Mardi Gras Indian. Yet Tootie Montana’s contributions to Mardi Gras Indian culture far exceed his artistic innovations and dedication. Through the example of his own achievement, he came to be revered for turning Mardi Gras Indians away from gang-style violence toward artistic accomplishment and competition. In the aftermath of Katrina, TOOTIE’S LAST SUIT bears witness to the Mardi Gras Indians who, in picking up the threads of their torn lives and tradition, are the spiritual healers of New Orleans.

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.

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.

The first entry in Christophe Chassol's "Ultrascores" trilogy, an homage to the rhythm of New Orleans.

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.

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.

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.

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.