by the river of babylon: an elegy for south louisiana
a documentary film by Don Howard and Jim Shelton
by the river of babylon: an elegy for south louisiana
a documentary film by Don Howard and Jim Shelton
This film grew from the filmmakers’ 25-year-long interest in South Louisiana’s dancehalls, habitat for the Cajun, Creole, Swamp Pop, and Zydeco musics that have made the area America's "greatest musical wellspring." During that time, sadly, they’ve seen the dancehalls dying, and Mike Tidwell’s 2003 book “Bayou Farewell” helped them to see, too, that there are much larger forces at play in the wetlands. In 2008, with the help of cinematographer David Layton, they began shooting a film that would interweave these parallel stories of loss in the dancehalls and the marshes, where the cataclysm continues. And with the help of producer Megan Field, additional cinematography by Lee Daniel, some exceptional sound recording and design by Justin Hennard, and the graphics work of Mike Nicholson, these Texas filmmakers have created a heartfelt tribute to this incredible landscape, and an elegy for one of America’s most amazing cultures.
find dancehalls
Check out University of Louisiana Lafayette Archivist John Sharp’s beautiful dancehall website to learn more and find a favorite:
Music
"We had all these immigrations - the Irish, Italian, French, Spanish, African-American. So you have all of those different foodways here, in the best cupboard in the world, and it's not strange that we would come up with a unique cuisine, a very good cuisine. And it's not strange, coming from that same mixture of backgrounds, that we have a unique music culture too." - Windell Curole, from the film
Music
"We had all these immigrations - the Irish, Italian, French, Spanish, African-American. So you have all of those different foodways here, in the best cupboard in the world, and it's not strange that we would come up with a unique cuisine, a very good cuisine. And it's not strange, coming from that same mixture of backgrounds, that we have a unique music culture too." - Windell Curole, from the film
Environment
Bob Marshall, one of the environmental experts in the film, likened the B.P. oil spill's impact on Louisiana "...to a cold suffered by a cancer patient. The cold was painful and bad, but when that virus has run its course, cancer will still be killing the patient. The oil was a tragedy on top of a permanent disaster."
Environment
Bob Marshall, one of the environmental experts in the film, likened the B.P. oil spill's impact on Louisiana "...to a cold suffered by a cancer patient. The cold was painful and bad, but when that virus has run its course, cancer will still be killing the patient. The oil was a tragedy on top of a permanent disaster."
our guides
Don Davis, Windell Curole, and Bob Marshall guide us from the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, through the marshes toward the mouth of the river, near where Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005. Along the way, we learn about man-made changes to the environment that may be ruining this unique landscape—one of the most fertile in the world—forever.
Click here (or copy into your browser) to link to Bob’s detailed descriptions of the current situation in: 1) Losing Ground, and 2) Louisiana's Moon Shot: