Louisiana International Film Festival 2017 Recap

The fifth Louisiana International Film Festival happened on April 20-23, 2017. It was the first full year after the death of Dan Ireland, the festival’s Artistic Director. It also came after the  floods in 2016 that devastated much of southeast Louisiana.

Both were directly acknowledged in the festival’s programming selections, which gave LIFF 2017 a certain gravitas. Even so, there was plenty of room for celebration as the festival broke new attendance records for some of its films.

My advice would be to anyone, whatever you’re doing, always engage the person on their passions.” – Chesley Heymsfield

Renée Zellweger was the festival’s special guest. She came to be a part of the special screening of The Whole Wide World, a film directed by Dan in 1996 that starred Renée and Vincent D’Onofrio. That film led to her role in Jerry Maguire, which turned her into an international superstar and solidified her friendship with Dan. After the film screened, Renée presented the first annual Dan Ireland Award to the filmmakers behind Kills on Wheels.

In this episode, I share the interviews I did at LIFF 2017 and my experiences at the festival.

Guests in this Episode

• Barry Martyn, jazz drummer; Sally Young – host of Traditional Jazz on WWOZ in New Orleans – starts at 2:06 min. They discuss their involvement with the music doc One Note at a Time, a look at the post-Katrina music scene in New Orleans and how the Musicians’ Clinic helps to cover the medical needs of NOLA musicians.
• Andrew Vogel, Operations Director of LIFF and a California-based actor and producer – starts at 14:01 min.
• Alexander Jeffery, a filmmaker who worked on three of the films that screened at the festival: Memoir, The Verses, and Last Light – starts at 25:11 min.
• Jason Allen, Production Director of LIFF and a 1st AD who is a member of the Directors Guild of America and has lived and worked in Los Angeles for 20 years – starts at 32:36 min.
• Chesley Heymsfield, Executive Director of LIFF and film producer – starts at 49:00 min.
• My comments start at 1:13:13 hr.

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Films & Shows Mentioned

• Backtrack Vodka
• The Book of Clarence
• Cézanne and I
• Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table
• The Hero
  
• Jena Six
• Kills on Wheels
• Last Light
• Man Down
• Memoir
• Memorial Drive
• One Note at a Time
• Patti Cake$
• The Red Pill
• The Ryan Francis Story
• Unrest
• The Verses
• The Whole Wide World

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