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FAUBOURG TREME: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLACK NEW ORLEANS
A lament for a drowned culture brought to you direct from our partner California Newsreel.
FAUBOURG TREME was largely shot before the Katrina tragedy but edited afterward, giving the film both a celebratory and elegiac tone. Our guide through the neighborhood is New Orleans Time-Picayune reporter Lolis Eric Elie, who decided that rather than abandon his heritage he would invest in it by rehabilitating an old house in the Treme district. We meet characters who paint an incredible picture of the history of this area, which is widely considered the birthplace of Jazz, and a hotbed of civil rights struggles. But FAUBOURG TREME doesn’t simply commemorate, it reminds us that American society still confronts the same battles that the residents of Treme have waged through two centuries – demands for economic justice, voting rights, equal education, decent public services – in short, full citizenship for African Americans.
"A new documentary finally captures the real New Orleans on film...flat-out brilliant...this is a great piece of storytelling, filmmaking and testifying. It is also, arguably, the most poignant film ever made about New Orleans...see it as soon as you can. It will make you smile and cry and fall in love with New Orleans all over again. Some of us need that now more than ever." -The New Orleans Tribune
"A celebration of the venerable African-American history of New Orleans...passion for the subject infuses the film...remarkable footage and charming interviews." -Variety
"...timely and essential...charming yet hard-hitting..." -The Village Voice
"...while few films grapple with uncomfortable subjects (race, power, and fear), Dawn Logsdon's film has been likened to a cinematic paen to justice..." -Cine Source
"Powerful piece of work on our beloved New Orleans! Don't miss it!" -Cornel West, Princeton University
Directors Statement We are New Orleans filmmakers, one black and one white. With the failure of the federal levees after Hurricane Katrina, our entire city was transformed overnight into the symbol of all that has gone wrong in America, in particular its deepening racial and economic divide. Seared into the nation's consciousness are images of desperately poor black people trapped on rooftops and denied the most basic protection of American citizenship. Those images have come to represent black New Orleans.
Our goal in making this film was to tell the story behind those images. We chose to focus on one New Orleans neighborhood, Faubourg Tremé, a historic community that like much of the old city is predominantly African American, poor, and steeped in distinctly un-American traditions. For us Faubourg Tremé is quintessential New Orleans. We wanted to capture the spirit of this place that has persevered in the face of great hostility for centuries and created a culture and history that enriched America and the world.
These days, "character driven" documentaries are all the rage. In editing this film, however, we chose not to structure our story around the personal dramas of our wonderful individual characters but to highlight the larger drama of community. We hope New Orleans itself becomes the character you laugh and cry with, and come to love.
Our film focuses on a forgotten 19th century Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans and the music and writing that was born of those dreams. We ourselves are both products of a later Civil Rights Movement. Our parents were Civil Rights activists. We were each sent to integrate New Orleans schools — Lolis to an elite all-white private school, Dawn to an inner city public school that had been abandoned by white parents after desegregation. Our childhood memories are of picket lines, voter registration drives and dreams of a new New Orleans.
Today, there's another new New Orleans in the planning and a new generation of young Americans trekking South to help in the rebuilding. Many of the battles of the past are being fought again. In the course of making this film, the Tremé neighborhood was transformed from one of the most rooted communities in America to among the most uprooted. Before the hurricane, one of the things old people loved to tell us over and over was "You can't possibly know where you're going if you don't know where you've been." Back then, this expression sounded to us like a simplistic cliché. After the flood, it became our mantra too. The history of New Orleans is littered with tragic paths not taken. But it's also rich with tales of brave uprisings, interracial collaboration, endurance and creativity. Our hope is that this film can help heal, educate and inspire at this critical moment in New Orleans' future."
