It’s been 30 years since the first New Orleans Film Festival, and a lot has changed in that time. Three decades on, there are more screenings, more visiting filmmakers, more attendees — more of everything, really.
This week, as the festival launches its 2019 edition — which started Wednesday night and continues for seven more days and nights at venues around town — there’s one “more” that stands out above the others.
This year, there are more quality Louisiana films than usual in the festival lineup.
That’s not to say past editions haven’t boasted great examples of local film. In fact, it’s become a reliable October showcase for locally crafted award-season sweethearts, from “Beasts of the Southern Wild” to “12 Years a Slave” to “Green Book,” to name just three.
Traditionally, though, there has been a fairly steep drop off in quality between the festival’s premier films and the soon-to-be-forgotten schedule fillers that often round out the lineup.
That being said, this year feels different. Not only is there a litany of locally made, locally set films, but it’s a generally impressive crop.
Here’s a closer look at nine local films worth catching at the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival.
New Orleans actor Wendell Pierce stars in director Phillip Youmans’ award-winning drama ‘Burning Cane.’ The film will play as one of the Centerpiece selections at the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“Burning Cane”
78 minutes | dir. Phillip Youmans
This Louisiana-shot, Louisiana-set drama is easily among the highest-profile films at this year’s festival, largely because of the reception it got at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this past summer, where it was named Best Narrative Feature in addition to winning awards for its cinematography and for actor Wendell Pierce’s lead performance.
The back story of “Burning Cane,” however, is every bit as irresistible, with the film having been written, directed and shot by 19-year-old NOCCA product Phillip Youmans when he was still in high school.
That last bit makes the film even more incredible, given the storytelling and filmmaking virtuosity on display. Faulknerian in tone, it tells the interweaving story of three members of a rural black Louisiana community: a grief-stricken preacher (Pierce), one of his congregants (Karen Kaia Livers) and a troubled young father (Dominique McClellan).
Although the whole affair is fairly dreary stuff tonally, Youmans’ story proves to be thoughtful, patient and, where his cinematography is concerned, perfectly imperfect. All of that helps lend it a searing authenticity.
What’s more, Youmans manages to pull it off without making it feel overly precious — although that’s just what “Burning Cane” is.
Screens at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Orpheum Theater.
“Lost Bayou”
87 mins. | dir. Brian C. Miller Richard
While “Burning Cane” is the highest-profile local film in this year’s lineup, wise festgoers won’t let it overshadow this dreamy, swamp-set blend of mud, melancholy and mysticism.
One of two films in this year’s NOFF lineup to feature Arnaudville actor Teri Wyble (the other: “The Long Shadow,” below), it tells the story of a haunted addict who returns to her bayou home, against her better judgment, where she attempts to reconnect with her troubled father (Dane Rhodes).
The resulting slow-burn drama, accented by a haunting score from the Lost Bayou Ramblers, moves along at its own pace, parceling out details bit by bit as it explores themes of loss and self-discovery. It’s the film’s well-crafted sense of place, however — as well as a constant sense of intrigue and top-notch performances from Wyble and Rhodes — that make it among the more transporting of the local films in this year’s lineup.
Both festival screenings of “Lost Bayou” will be preceded by “Ouaouaron,” a 6-minute experimental short from local director Lily Keber (“Bayou Maharajah,” “Buckjumping”).
Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Contemporary Arts Center; and again at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday also at the CAC.
New Orleans musician Terrence Blanchard takes moviegoers on a sonic tour of New Orleans in director Michael Murphy’s documentary ‘Up From the Streets.’
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“Up From the Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music”
104 minutes | dir. Michael Murphy
It wouldn’t be the New Orleans Film Festival without a documentary devoted to the city’s music. What sets this one apart, though, is its sheer breadth, as it audaciously attempts to chart the history of New Orleans music. All of it.
Despite that ambitious scope, it does a relatively good job of it.
With Terrence Blanchard as our tour guide/lecture leader, “Up From the Streets” feels a bit like some educational classroom filmstrip at first. It isn’t long, however, before it finds a rhythm as it rockets through the city’s sonic history. Starting with Congo Square, it touches at least briefly on nearly every major musical chapter in the city’s songbook, from the French Opera House to Big Freedia, from the birth of jazz to the birth of rock, and from Louis Moreau Gottschalk to Louis Armstrong to Louis Prima.
Helping tell that expansive story is a litany of well-versed interview subjects, ranging from Quint Davis to Robert Plant to Harry Connick Jr. — along with a whole mess of Nevilles and Marsalises, among others.
The episodic structure of Murphy’s film lends it a choppy feel, but some truly wonderful moments can be found in the multitude of musical performances used to illustrate various chapters. It’s then that “Up From the Streets” really comes alive, showing us — rather than trying to tell us — what makes the sound of the city so special.
Screens at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Orpheum Theater.
A wooden fence is all that separates the homestead of holdout Stacey Ryan and an encroaching industrial facility, in an image from director Alexander Glustrom’s documentary ‘Mossville: When Great Trees Fall.’
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“Mossville: When Great Trees Fall”
75 minutes | dir. Alexander Glustrom
Five years after bringing his Charity Hospital documentary “Big Charity” to the festival, filmmaker Alexander Glustrom returns for the world premiere of his latest project, “Mossville,” which chronicles another part of Louisiana culture in danger of disappearing.
This time, it’s the community of Mossville, a onetime Utopia founded by former slaves just west of Lake Charles which, despite the efforts of the handful of determined holdouts featured in the film, is in the process of being wiped off the map by ever-expanding industrial facilities.
“They’re erasing everything. Everything,” one of Glustrom’s subjects says in the film, which is set squarely at the juncture of environmental injustice and institutional racism.
The truly sad thing is, she would appear to be right. Glustrom makes that clear in the melancholy “Mossville,” which isn’t so much a celebration of a once-loved community but an elegy for one about to disappear.
Screens at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Orpheum Theater. World premiere.
Aasha Davis is a rural Louisiana police officer investigating a murder that hits close to home in director Daniel Lafrentz’s drama ‘The Long Shadow,’ which is screening in competition at the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“The Long Shadow”
95 minutes | dir. Daniel Lafrentz
Playing like a fictional counterpoint to “Mossville,” this one is a crime melodrama set in a small Louisiana town whose residents are faces with the difficult decision of being bought out by a seemingly unstoppable corporation bent on expansion.
That’s just the backdrop, though. The central drama focused on a police officer (played by Aasha Davis) who is drawn down a dark rabbit hole when her girlfriend — who is also a lawyer hired to represent the town’s residents — turns up dead.
While it’s not entirely airtight as whodunits go, director Daniel Lafrentz’s moody film boasts strong acting and solid technical elements, all of which helps hold it together until its big third-act revelations.
Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Broad Theater; and again at 5 p.m. Saturday also at the Broad.
An image from the crime comedy ‘Easy Does It,’ which features a cast that includes Bryan Batt, Linda Hamilton and Dwight Henry. It screens as part of the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“Easy Does It”
95 minutes | dir. Will Addison
What do you get when you cross Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” with the Farrelly brothers’ “Dumb and Dumber”? In all likelihood, it would be something a lot like this indie comedy/crime drama hybrid.
The work of a group of University of New Orleans film grads, it tells the story of two down-and-out Southern buds (Ben Matheny and Matthew Paul Martinez) who hop in their star-spangled Ford Mustang and head for the West Coast in search of buried treasure. Hot on their tail: a determined cop played by a campy Bryan Batt and a more determined criminal queenpin played by “Terminator” actor and Algiers resident Linda Hamilton. (Also in the cast: “Beasts of the Southern Wild” actor Dwight Henry.)
The result is an alternately goofy and violent romp that feels inspired by Kevin Smith, in that it boasts cartoonish characters and one-note, rat-a-tat dialogue that makes every character sound the same.
But, also like Smith’s films, it’s laced with a nice dash of heart, helping rescue it from its uneven moments and turning into something enjoyable.
Screens at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the Orpheum Theater. World premiere.
Louisiana native and former Oakland Raiders dancer Lacy Thibodeaux-Fields is among the women profiled in the documentary ‘A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem.’ Directed by Yu Gu, it will screen Saturday, Oct. 19, at the New Orleans Advocate building as part of the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem”
80 minutes | dir. Yu Gu
This documentary feature wasn’t made by a local filmmaker, but it lands on this list because one of its two main subjects is Louisiana native Lacy Thibodeaux-Fields, a professional dancer who made national headlines when she sued the Oakland Raiders for what she characterized as unfair labor practices concerning NFL cheerleaders.
That case, and a similar one filed around the same time against the Buffalo Bills, would open the door for a number of cheerleader lawsuits against NFL teams, including the New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. Here, we get a look at the women behind the headlines.
And while there will be those, including yours truly, who might initially be inclined to dismiss such woes as small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, it’s to the credit of director Yu Gu that “A Woman’s Work” makes such a persuasive and compelling case.
Her film isn’t “just” about cheerleaders. It’s really about bigger ideas, including the devaluation of women in general in American society, and about basic fairness in the workplace, regardless of gender.
Screens at 6 p.m. Saturday at The New Orleans Advocate building.
Aerial photographer Ben Depp soars above the Louisiana marsh in an image from director Dominic Gill’s environmental documentary ‘Last Call for the Bayou.’
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“Last Call For the Bayou: 5 Stories from Louisiana’s Disappearing Delta”
53 minutes | dir. Dominic Gill
The subtitle of this red-flag documentary pretty much says it all, as it uses the stories of five people living along the Louisiana coast to underscore the ever-deepening urgency of coastal restoration efforts.
Among them: an aerial photographer, a shrimper, a coastal geologist, a member of the United Houma Nation and the self-proclaimed “Duck Queen of Plaquemines Parish.”
While there aren’t many revelations to be had in director Dominic Gill’s handsomely shot film, there’s no denying that its message is worth repeating as many times as needed until people listen. The fact that he chose such embraceable personalities to help deliver that message makes it all that much more enjoyable, helping his film double as an earnest celebration of coastal life.
Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Contemporary Arts Center.
An image from Angela Tucker’s 21-minute documentary ‘All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk,’ which examines the role of women in the 2017 New Orleans mayoral runoff. It is one of more than 30 Louisiana shorts scheduled to play at the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE NEW ORLEANS FILM SOCIETY
“All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk”
21 minutes | dir. Angela Tucker
Among the most overlooked joys of the New Orleans Film Festival every year are its shorts programs, which are always filled with wonderful, bite-sized gems. That the festival’s winners in the documentary, narrative and animated shorts categories automatically qualify for Oscar consideration all but guarantees that.
It’s also a great showcase for native talent, with an entire category devoted to Louisiana shorts. Among the 30-plus vignettes screening as part of the festival’s four Louisiana 2019 shorts programs is this one, about the mayoral runoff between Desirée Charbonnet and LaToya Cantrell, which director Angela Tucker uses as a springboard for an examination of the role of black women in New Orleans politics, both in office and in the voting booth.
Screens as part of the “Sweet Home New Orleans” shorts program, which unspools at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at the Contemporary Arts Center; and again at 6 p.m. Tuesday also at the CAC.