25th Annual New Orleans Film Festival
October in New Orleans is reserved for a handful of events each year. For 25 of those years, The New Orleans Film Festival has always been a staple in many folks’ social calendar.
As we continue to be THE destination for production of all major and indy films, New Orleans proves to be the shining gem of the festival circuit.
This year’s crop of films has soared well over 200, and below we’ve listed to films we’re most excited about this year and one we cannot wait to grab popcorn for.
WHIPLASH
A promising young drummer enrolls at a cutthroat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential.
61 BULLETS
Huey Long was, by his own design, a celebrity politician. He toured across the country, inspiring devotion in those he empowered and fear in those concerned by his own pursuit of power. So when he was fatally shot in the hall of the Louisiana State Capitol, everyone in the state knew the name of his alleged assailant: Dr. Carl Weiss, killed within seconds by retaliation blasts from Long’s bodyguards.
BLACK AND WHITE
Starring Academy Award-winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer, Black and White is the story of a widowed grandfather (Costner) who is left to raise his bi-racial granddaughter. When the little girl’s paternal grandmother (Spencer) seeks custody, a bitter legal battle ensues that forces the uneasy family members to have an honest conversation about life, death, anger and America’s racial divide. Also starring Anthony Mackie, Jennifer Ehle, Gillian Jacobs, Bill Burr, Andre Holland and introducing Jillian Estell.
BIG STAR: LIVE IN MEMPHIS
Like photographing a ghost, Big Star: Live in Memphis was never expected to happen. Two decades after the demise of the 1970s power-pop band, original members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens enlisted a couple of the Posies to rejuvenate the group, and the glory that had eluded them twenty years earlier finally arrived.
BUTTERCUP BILL
The suicide of her childhood best friend Flora brings Pernilla rushing back to New Orleans. What holds her there is the dark magnetism of Patrick, the third term in their precocious ménage, who is conspicuously absent at Flora’s funeral. Reunited, Pernilla and Patrick take shelter in their shared past, revisiting the play of their childhood with a fresh adult menace.
CRATERS OF THE MOON
Roger (Cody Lightning) and Molly (Breeda Wool) are a married couple on a cross-country road trip. They’re traveling in style: a vintage red Mustang with white interior. Sure, the radio is a bit shaky and the heater could be better — it also lacks four-wheel drive… On second thought, maybe it’s not the kind of vehicle you’d like to be in when driving through a blizzard in southeastern Idaho.
