9th CINEMA ON THE BAYOU FILM FESTIVAL JANUARY 22-26, 2014
REPORT OF ACTIVITIES
9th CINEMA ON THE BAYOU FILM FESTIVAL – Jan. 22-26, 2014 REPORT OF ACTIVITIES Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival was founded in Lafayette, Louisiana in 2006 by filmmaker Pat Mire after Hurricane Katrina caused the cancellation of the New Orleans Film Festival in the fall of 2005. The Festival has since grown into the most unique festival of its kind in the United States, bringing together here in Acadiana – the heart of French Louisiana – both French and English speaking filmmakers and their films from around the world. Since its beginning, Cinema on the Bayou has been committed to presenting nationally and internationally acclaimed documentary and narrative fiction films and filmmakers with truly original voices. The Festival is also committed to advancing the understanding of Cajun and Creole cultures through film screenings, film panels and cultural exchanges among French Louisiana, the United States and the Francophone countries of the world. Consistent with its mission, each year Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival presents world, U.S. and Louisiana premieres of films with the filmmakers from across the United States, Canada, France and beyond.
Audience favorites, such as THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE, which began its Festival run here in 2011 and won the Festival’s “Audience Award” one year before it was nominated and won the Academy Award for “Best Animated Short” in 2012, demonstrate the quality of official entries Cinema on the Bayou brings to Acadiana.
This year’s Festival included nearly 40 films, 70 events, including film screenings, receptions and music performances, and 50 filmmakers and musicians from Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, Shreveport, Little Rock, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Moncton, Montréal and Paris.
Sponsors. Major sponsors for the Festival are IATSE Local 478 - Motion Picture Studio Mechanics of Louisiana and Southern Mississippi and the French Embassy Office of Cultural Services in New York City and the Office of Consul General of France in New Orleans.
Community sponsors include Acadiana Center for the Arts, Vermilionville, Pack and Paddle, the Lafayette Public Library South Regional Branch, Cité des Arts, the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission, Teamwork Solutions Group, the National Film Board of Canada and Vidéographe. Opening Night Film and Gala. The 9th Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival opened on Wednesday, January 22, 2014, at the Acadiana Center for the Arts to a capacity crowd for the Louisiana Premiere of SECRETARIAT’S JOCKEY, RON TURCOTTE, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Director Phil Comeau, a Montréal-based award-winning filmmaker, was in attendance. In addition to this film, which was awarded the “goujon caille” Director’s Choice Special Jury Award, the Festival presented a retrospective of Comeau’s classic French language Acadian films.
The opening night film was followed by a gala reception with boudin and smoked sausage from Johnson’s Boucaniere and wine provided by the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission.
Vue du Bayou French Language Films and Filmmakers. The Festival continued on Thursday at Vermilionville with the Vue du Bayou French Language Film Series. This year’s Festival included a total of 18 French language films and 11 Francophonie filmmakers from Paris, Moncton and Montréal, all of whom stayed for the entire Festival.
French filmmaker Stéphanie Assimacopoulo was among those in attendance for the entire Festival. Her multi-award winning film LE TRAIN BLEU has been an official selection in more than 90 film festivals world-wide and made its Louisiana Premiere as an official selection at Cinema on the Bayou. Ms. Assimacopoulo’s attendance was made possible by the French Embassy Office of Cultural Services in New York City and the Office of the Consulate General of France in New Orleans. Ms. Béatrice Germaine of the Consulate General’s Office attended the Louisiana Premiere of LE TRAIN BLEU and the reception that followed.
This year’s Vue du Bayou French Language Film Series included a number of official submissions by Vidéographe, a Montréal-based film distribution company, as part of an exclusive partnership with the Festival aimed at bringing high quality U.S. and Louisiana premieres of French language films to our growing audiences here in French Louisiana and sending our films for distribution in Canada. Montréal-based filmmakers represented by Vidéographe in attendance throughout the five-day Festival included Félix Lamarche, Jean-Philippe Marchand, Maxime-Claude L’Écuyer, John Blouin, and Martin Legault.
In addition, with financial support from the Arts Development Branch of the New Brunswick Filmmakers’ Co-Operative and Ghislain Labbé, Moncton-based filmmakers Jean-Marc Goguen, Martin Goguen, Gilles Doiron and Kleo Richard, attended the five-day Festival at which their award-winning feature film ALLER-RETOUR made its U.S. Premiere.
Winter in Acadiana. On Friday, our long-time venue partner, Pack and Paddle, and their wonderful staff, managed to screen our Environmental Film Series to another capacity crowd despite some of the worst winter weather in recorded history to hit Lafayette. Georgia-based filmmaker Brian Campbell, Little Rock-based filmmaker Will Scott, and New Orleans-based filmmaker Kathleen Ledet were in attendance. What troopers!!! When we had to close down early Friday evening at Vermilionville because of the weather, the Festival moved to the home of Artistic Director Pat Mire, where we screened the Louisiana Premiere of THE BLUES CONUNDRUM to a house full of visiting friends and filmmakers.
Those in attendance included Dallas-based filmmaker Jake Glenn and the Dallas-based Blue Conundrum Blues Band, all of whom just barely made it in into Lafayette on Friday evening from Dallas despite icy roads and backed-up traffic.
The Sun Returns. Saturday brought sunshine and crowds of film lovers to AcA for a full day of films and filmmakers, including Shreveportbased filmmaker Thomas Woodruff of Louisiana Film Prize fame. Muralist Robert Dafford was also on hand to introduce the Louisiana Premiere of BEYOND THESE WALLS, a film about his work over ten years on murals in Portsmouth, Ohio.
New York-based filmmaker and Cinema on the Bayou alum Sarah Knight, along with her mom from Nebraska, attended the Louisiana Premiere of her first narrative feature, VINO VERITAS. The film was awarded the “goujon caille” award for Best Narrative Feature Film.
The Saturday evening crowd was treated to the Louisiana Premiere of Montréal-based filmmaker Phil Comeau’s THE NATURE OF FRÉDÉRIC BACK, a documentary about the Academy Award-winning animated filmmaker.
In conjunction with the Comeau film, the Festival presented the Acadiana Premiere of Academy Award-winning William Joyce’s animated short film THE NUMBERLYS, with Shreveport-based filmmaker Wendell Riley of Moonbot Studios.
The AcA Rocks with BAS CLAS. Saturday evening closed with a performance by legendary rockers BAS CLAS with special guests MICHAEL DOUCET, DICKIE LANDRY, JONNO FRISHBURG and LESLIE SMITH. Members of BAS CLAS traveled from Atlanta, New Orleans and Florida for this benefit performance, which was filmed by an Austin-based film crew for screening as part of the celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival in January 2015.
In addition to the weekend screenings at AcA, the Festival screened films for free at the Lafayette Parish South Regional Branch Library on Saturday and Sunday with filmmakers in attendance, including Royd Anderson and Paul Dale of New Orleans and Michael Bienvenu of Miami. The Festival also screened the World Premiere of Drew Landry’s THE RESTORATION, followed by music by the Drew Landry Band at Cité des Arts.
Music-Driven Closing. On Sunday at AcA, following a full day of films and filmmakers, the Festival closed with the Louisiana Premiere of THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC, the story of Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz featuring many local musicians who have recorded on the label. San Fransisco-based filmmaker Maureen Gosling and Salt Lake City-based filmmaker Chris Simon were in attendance. The film was awarded the “goujon caille” award for the Best Documentary Feature.
Sunday evening, Artistic Director Pat Mire presented a total of 15 “goujon caille” awards to filmmakers from across the United States, Canada and France. These award-winning filmmakers and their films have received additional accolades as they have continued on the film festival circuit since Cinema on the Bayou. The Festival ended on Sunday with a special music performance and discussion with the audience, by ANN SAVOY with MICHAEL DOUCET and WILSON SAVOY, who were featured in THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC.
The Festival’s Impact. Over the course of the five-day Festival, despite the unprecedented winter weather, several thousand devoted friends and fans of the Festival attended the film screenings, receptions and music events held at venues across Acadiana. In addition to the local and regional attendees, the Festival saw its biggest influx into the Lafayette area to date of visiting filmmakers, musicians and their guests from across Louisiana, the United States, Canada and Europe, with the vast majority staying multiple nights during the Festival and many staying for a week or more.
Important connections were forged during the Festival among these visiting filmmakers and the Acadiana area and its people and culture, connections made possible by the creative environment of this unique film festival. Many filmmakers committed to returning to this area both to bring their films and to make their films. Also, these visitors stayed in area hotels, booking several hundred rooms during the course of the Festival, ate at area restaurants, rented cars and purchased gas and visited area tourist attractions, thereby making a significant positive impact on the local economy.
Press Coverage Across Acadiana and Canada. In addition to the incredible local press and regional press, press coverage of this year’s festival went viral in Canada with numerous stories – in newspapers, online and on television and radio -- on Cinema on the Bayou and the nine French Canadian filmmakers who attended and the fifteen French Canadian films that were screened, all of which were either U.S. or Louisiana Premieres. Here is a sampling of this year’s press coverage:
The “goujon caille” awards. The 9th Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival “goujon caille” (spotted catfish) awards were made by local artist Pat Juneau. The following films were given “goujon caille” awards in the following categories: Director's Choice Special Jury Award: SECRETARIAT'S JOCKEY, RON TURCOTTE; Special Jury Mention: THE NUMBERLYS.
Best Documentary Feature: THIS AIN'T NO MOUSE MUSIC; Special Jury Mention: NIGHT LABOR and THE BLUES CONUNDRUM.
Best Documentary Short: CAN’T STOP THE WATERS; Special Jury Mention: DES HOMMES À LA MER (MEN AT SEA).
Best Narrative Feature: VINO VERITAS; Special Jury Mention: 45RPM.
Best Narrative Short: FILMSTRIPE; Special Jury Mention: LE TRAIN BLEU and L’ETAT DES LIEUX (THE STATE OF MIND). Audience Award: THE NATURE OF FRÉDÉRIC BACK.
Inspiration Award: ALLER-RETOUR; Special Jury Mention: SUKI.
Cinema on the Bayou Film Society. Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival is presented each year by Cinema on the Bayou Film Society, a Louisiana non-profit corporation. Cinema on the Bayou Film Society has applied for and has pending an application with the IRS to be recognized as a Section 501(c) (3) entity under the federal tax code. Thank you to CPA Jim Faulk, a long-time Friend of Cinema on the Bayou, for his invaluable assistance in making this application. Cinema on the Bayou Film Society Board Members are: Pat Mire, President
Rebecca L. Hudsmith, Secretary-Treasurer Sybil Gaar, Director
Robert Dafford, Director Eric Breaux, Director
The mailing address is: 101 Duclos Street, Lafayette, LA 70506. The phone number is: 337-235-7845
The email is: festival@cinemaonthebayou.com. Our web site is: www.cinemaonthebayou.com.