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In October, the city of New Orleans hosted its 22nd Annual Film Festival. This month, several of the films shown are making their television and big-screen debuts. Locally, two of the movies, “Take Shelter” and “The Big Fix” are already playing in theatres. But it is the October winner for best documentary, “Marathon Boy” that is scheduled to play on HBO in November- including their On-Demand channel! These recent success has got this Southern Celebrity Gossiper wondering… New Orleans Films- where are they now?

For winner “Goodnight Irene” the answer to that is the Golden Globes in Portugal! This film received the award there for best actor. The movie received the NOFF award for best narrative before earning the Golden Globe in ’09. Also, the independent film “How To Be”, which stars “Twilight”’s Robert Patterson received an audience award here in NOLA before going on to win two awards at the Washington D.C. Film Festival the following year. The movie helped Patterson to break away from his sultry role as a hunky Vampire- instead portraying a gawky, awkward 20-something going through a “quarter life crisis”. For more information on this movie and others that have participated in the New Orleans Film Festival, you should check out their website.

All and all, the local festival seems to be helpful in launching independent films both nationally, and internationally. This festival has also helped the movie industry grow here in New Orleans… which makes this city the perfect location for anyone aspiring to be in this creative field!

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There are dramas, documentaries and shorts. And there are, of course, beau coup offerings by Louisiana filmmakers focusing on the issue that locals hold near and ear, from the BP oil spill to the state of New Orleans' public education, and from coach Dale Brown to crawfish. Check out what the experts are saying at  NOLA.com .
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Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
During Jazz Fest 2010, after time spent touring together My Morning Jacket singer Jim James joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for a night at the Hall. The evening was captured on film by famed music photographer Danny Clinch, and subsequently formed the basis of a documentary/concert film about the Pres Hall Jazz Band, their collaboration with My Morning Jacket, and the Hall itself. The doc screened at SXSW earlier this year, and will be given its first sneak peek in New Orleans Saturday, July 23 at the Ogden Museum in conjunction with the closing of the Preservation Hall art exhibit currently on display there. Tickets are available in advance. Later local screenings are planned for the New Orleans Film Festival in October.


To see the Louisiana Fairytale trailer, continue to offbeat.com
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Screening of 'King Kong' in Nola
Screening of 'King Kong' in Nola
Louisiana ranks third in the nation for film and television production, behind New York and California. David Simon's Treme, the HBO series about post-Katrina New Orleans, is filmed in the city, and so was this year's superhero movie Green Lantern. In 2010, 35 movies were shot there.

But while the city shines in film production, it's trying to catch up in terms of film exhibition. There are only two movie theaters in the city proper: the Prytania Theatre in Uptown, the oldest operating cinema in New Orleans, and the Theatres at Canal Place, with an average of 45 seats in each of its five screening spaces. Many of the city's other cinemas were damaged during Hurricane Katrina and haven't been restored.

Attempting to change the city's film-watching experience is the New Orleans Film Society, headed by executive director Jolene Pinder, AB'01, and program director Clint Bowie, AB'03, with one other full-time staff member, artistic director John Desplas. The film audience in New Orleans isn't nearly as high as in other cities, and Pinder and Bowie think one reason is that there just aren't enough places to go that offer a special viewing experience, something different from simply streaming a movie on a laptop. "Right now," Bowie says, "we don't have a reasonable space we can use to accommodate 1,000 people for an opening-night screening."

Responsible for four major annual festivals, including the New Orleans Film Festival, the society shows films that might not otherwise be screened in the city at the Prytania, the recently rebuilt Chalmette Cinema in a nearby suburb, or at local arts centers. In May, for example, it screened the French film Rubber, about a tire that comes alive and kills people, and the documentary Bill Cunningham New York, about the eccentric New York City fashion photographer. For that event, the society staged a discussion with the organizers of New Orleans Fashion Week.

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