Spanish musician Santiago Auserón soaked up the rhythmic wisdom of son during his first visit to Cuba in 1984, an influence he soon transferred to his own work.
Phillis Wheatley Elementary School was a significant landmark in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, serving as an important educational institution for African-American students for nearly half a century. The school was known for its innovative modern design that was unique to the region, reflecting the area’s cultural and historical roots. However, the school sustained significant damage during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in 2005. Despite the damage, the school’s unique design caught the attention of DOCOMOMO Louisiana, an organization dedicated to preserving modern architecture. They advocated for the restoration of the school through adaptive reuse, citing its historical significance and architectural importance. The organization produced this short film, “A Plea for Modernism,” narrated by actor Wendell Pierce, to raise awareness of the school’s cultural and historical value and promote its restoration.
CodeSwitching is a mash-up of personal stories from three generations of African American students who participated in a landmark voluntary desegregation program. Shuttling between their inner-city Boston neighborhoods and predominantly white suburban schools in pursuit of a better education, they find themselves swapping elements of culture, language, and behavior to fit in with their suburban counterparts – Often acting or speaking differently based on their surroundings, called code-switching.
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.
Marc Okrand discusses his involvement with the Star Trek franchise and his work on inventing the Klingon and Vulcan languages.
This documentary film includes never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews to tell the story of Charity Hospital, from its roots to its controversial closing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. From the firsthand accounts of healthcare providers and hospital employees who withstood the storm inside the hospital, to interviews with key players involved in the closing of Charity and the opening of New Orleans’ newest hospital, “Big Charity” shares the untold, true story around its closure and sheds new light on the sacrifices made for the sake of progress.
The Legendary Soulja Slim is classic footage of the rapper slash gangster showing big guns, dissing record labels, making threats, and ultimately partying until it all caught up with him.
The Naked Dance is the first documentary about America's legendary legal red-light district that thrived in New Orleans from 1898 until World War I. Storyville got its name when Alderman Sidney Story attempted to clear up the New Orleans waterfront by restricting prostitution to a specific neighborhood. To his chagrin, the area was dubbed "Storyville," and it was so known until the U.S. Navy closed it for good in 1917.
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.
Anton Habovštiak - Oravským chodníčkom...
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.
One of comedian Richard Pryor's later stand-up performances. As foul-mouthed as ever, Pryor touches on most of the same topics as in his previous live shows. Filmed at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans.
The film "Hurricane on the Bayou" is about the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.
A first-person account of the short-term and long-term devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, as told by young people who were between the ages of 3 and 19 when the levees broke.
Follows members of the Zulu Club, New Orleans’ first Black Mardi Gras, as they work to bring the Zulu parade back to the streets for Mardi Gras Day 2022, in the face of a global pandemic, hurricane Ida and the loss of members due to COVID and gun violence.
What makes a voice “gay”? A breakup with his boyfriend sets journalist David Thorpe on a quest to unravel a linguistic mystery.
The Grammar Of Happiness follows the story of Daniel Everett among the extraordinary 'nonconvertible' Amazonian Pirah tribe, a group of indigenous hunter- gatherers whose culture and outlook on life has taken the world of linguistics by storm. As a young ambitious missionary three decades ago, Dan, a red-bearded towering American, decamped to the Amazon rain forest to save indigenous souls. His assignment was to translate the book of Mark into the tongue of the Pirah, a people whose puzzling speech seemed unrelated to any other on Earth. What he learned during his time with the Pirah led him to question the very foundations of his own deep beliefs. As a 'born again' atheist, Dan divorced his devout Christian wife and became estranged from his children. Having lost faith and family, his new life is dominated by the desire to leave behind his legacy. Everett's most controversial claim is that the Pirah language lacks 'recursion' - the ability to build an infinite number of sentences.
A touching documentary about a city that has lost hope, and about one man's fight to bring it back.
From the team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature - and indeed our own - is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.
About Daniel Lanois, the Canadian musician and producer, during one of his most productive years in life, living and recording in New Orleans, LA. Daniel Lanois was born in Hull, Quebec. Sept. 19, 1951. His family moved to Hamilton, Ont. in 1963. In 1974 he and his brother Bob built and operated the Grant Avenue Studio, where he produced records by acts such as Martha and the Muffins, Parachute Club, Raffi, and Ian Tyson. In 1989 he released his first solo album, "Acadie". He also produced "Oh Mercy" by Bob Dylan and "Yellow Moon" by The Neville Bros. during the same year.