See and Be Seen at Southern Screen
Louisiana has been dubbed the Hollywood of the South, and Lafayette isn’t about to sit back and let the credits roll.
With the belief that movies are hotter down in South Louisiana, Southern Screen Film Festival prepares to premiere its fourth annual event next weekend. Film screenings, workshops and panels, along with multiple parties, will make their home in various locations throughout Lafayette, moving beyond a traditional film festival to open up the community to the widespread possibilities of storytelling — complete with live music.
Opening night events are still TBA, but the following night presents a social at Parc de Lafayette, with records spun by DJ Andre Broussard and a late-night horror film. Both Saturday and Sunday are littered with workshops and panels at both the LITE Center and Acadiana Center for the Arts. Saturday includes the premiere of Nick Cave’s 2014 British documentary “20,000 Days on Earth” and one of the festival’s three Short Doc Series, including “Fred: The Town Dog,” a story from Rockford, Alabama, about a dog who brought the community back together and “Drill, Spill, Repeat” about the Gulf of Mexico and its wildlife victims four years after the BP oil disaster.
Shorts continue on Sunday with “Dans ma Cuisine,” a three-part Cajun cooking series, and “Atchafalaya Swamp Journals: Gator Diaries,” an alligator-hunting documentary. Thriller shorts on Saturday include “Man of the House,” in which a young boy confronts his fear of the sounds in the basement, and “Where Is Here?” about a man who awakens in a bare, isolated room without any knowledge of where he is or how he got there by Acadiana local James Edmunds. Adult shorts and dramatic shorts also round out this series throughout the weekend.
Major film screenings also include “I am Eleven,” which uses conversations with 11-year-olds to create portraits of the time between childhood and adolescence; “Advanced Style,” a documentary about seven New Yorkers aged 62 to 95 and their approach to aging; “Twin Reflex” in which a man is thrown from paranoia to murder after discovering his neighbor has been photographing him; and “I Lay Where I Fall,” showcasing a former band member on a search to find his own voice.
Workshops begin on Saturday with “The Art of Foley” by Lafayette native artist Michael Lyle, an Emmy Award winner and 10-year team member at Universal Studios. Other workshops include those on documentary filmmaking, what not to do when making a short, how to become a great line producer and the future of distribution panel.
Not that into film? Then you may just want to attend the parties. Friday night’s after party at the Feed & Seed features live music from Roddie Romero & The Hub City Allstars and the Wrap Party on Sunday at Blue Moon Saloon with band Feufollet, featured in the film “I Lay Where I Fall.”
Festival passes are available for $40 and get you into every red carpet, viewing at every screening, learning at every workshop and socializing at every party throughout the weekend. Day passes are $10, single event tickets are $5 and red carpet tickets are $10. View the full schedule of events here.
Photos courtesy of Southern Screen Film Festival.
