Festival:
The 31st New Orleans Film Festival
Dates:
November 6-22
About:
This standout regional festival moves to a hybrid format this year, presenting films either online or in an open-air context, with more than two-thirds of the lineup represented by nonfiction features.
Among the offerings:
A PLACE CALLED DESIRE
Director: Leonard Smith III
The story of an African American neighborhood found in New Orleans, told through the eyes of 60 individuals who called it home.
A CRIME ON THE BAYOU
Director: Nancy Buirski
In 1966 Louisiana, a lasting bond is formed between an unjustly arrested Black man, Gary Duncan, and Richard Sobol, his young Jewish attorney.
JACINTA
Director: Jessica Earnshaw
After being released from the same prison in which her mother is incarcerated, a woman struggles to break the generational cycle of addiction and trauma.
CLOSED FOR STORM
Director: Jake Williams
15 years after Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags New Orleans is currently sitting abandoned, rotting away in the Louisiana swamp.
JUAN
Director: Adrian Geyer
The filmmaker retraces his parents’ footsteps in search of an influential Venezuelan artist they helped promote in decades past.
KEYBOARD FANTASIES: THE BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND STORY
Director: Posy Dixon
After three decades of releasing album after album in relative obscurity, a Black transgender trailblazing musician finally finds success at the age of 74.
WELCOME TO PINE LAKE
Director: Elisa Gambino
Despite an all-female leadership, the city of Pine Lake, Georgia, still struggles with the legacy of historical segregation and the willful ignorance that white privilege allows.
A NEW BEGINNING
Director: Ala’a Mohsen
Wheelchair-bound Rabeaa and his four-year-old son, Kais, leave Syria for a fresh start in Norway.
PROPER PRONOUNS
Director: Megan Q Daniels
Four Southern trans pastors fight intolerance and discrimination in the Bible Belt.
PROFESSOR LONGHAIR, RUGGED AND FUNKY
Director: Joshua JG Bagnall
The life and times of an unsung musical genius known by his peers as the Bach of Rock.
THE PASSING ON
Director: Nathan Clarke
Celebrated mortician James Bryant mentors interns in a Black-owned funeral home in San Antonio, Texas.
NOBODY MAY COME
Director: Ella Hatamian, Stiven Luka
Indignant and eccentric 67-year-old Valerie Sassyfras she attempts to follow her popstar dreams.
TO DECADENCE WITH LOVE, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!
Director: Stuart Sox
Two drag queens prepare for a weekend of New Orleans’ queer celebration of identity, Southern Decadence.
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