Courtesy of Cory St. Ewart.
A still of musician Renée Reed as Evangeline in Cory St. Ewart's short film inspired by Louisiana culture and folklore.
On a hot and humid day in June, Lafourche Parish actor Hick Cheramie sat on a cypress porch on the edge of a pond in Breaux Bridge, dressed in a thick wool button-down. In the cabin behind him, cameras were being positioned, lighting adjusted. His co-star, the musician Renée Reed, was having her braid rearranged just so, the dirt on her face touched up. And Cheramie was sitting with Lafayette-area French language activist Matt Mick repeating, over and over again:
"Tu peux passer à la grocérie por les attraper?"
The two passed the phrase, which translates to English as “Could you get this from the store?” back and forth until Mick, acting as the film’s language consultant, was satisfied, and told Cheramie, “You got this.”
Cheramie, who is “from down the bayou,” speaks with a natural Cajun French accent, but like many Louisianans of his generation, doesn’t speak the language fluently. To accurately portray Theodule, father of the iconic Acadian heroine Evangeline in director Cory St. Ewart’s horror interpretation of Longfellow’s poem, he worked tirelessly with Mick to get the dialogue, spoken entirely in proper Acadian French, just right.
Cheramie has worked on major productions like Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum, Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation, and Michael Uppendahl’s Mayfair Witches, but said that as a person of Acadian descent, he found the character of Theodule one of the most intense and important roles he’s taken on yet. “It was a little bit more personal for me with this,” he said, “because I feel like our culture is so misinterpreted a lot of the time, so the desire to honor this role, and honor this story, and honor where I come from … the drive was really poignant. I was really pushing hard in my soul, you know, to honor the true language. And I didn’t want to embarrass myself and our culture, you know.”
Such a commitment to authenticity was central to St. Ewart’s vision for his film from the very beginning. An artist and filmmaker who got his start in Lafayette, he is currently completing an MFA at Columbia University; his darker, surrealist version of Evangeline was conceived to fulfill his summer short film assignment. “We had so much freedom to do anything we wanted,” he said, “as long as it was within five to twelve minutes, and under a certain budget cap. So, of course, I challenged myself in the most sense—doing a period piece in a language I don’t fully understand, shot in the middle of the Louisiana summer.”
The film’s concept was initially the result of St. Ewart’s homesickness after almost a year since leaving Lafayette—leading him down various deep dives studying Louisiana culture and folklore.
In the story of Evangeline, he saw opportunities to showcase elements of the culture—architecture, clothing, language—that are rarely seriously depicted in film.
"If we're going to present Evangeline to the rest of the cinema world as one of the very few examples of a period piece set in Acadiana. Then I want it to be as close as we can to what a period piece in Acadiana should be. Because it matters." —Cory St. Ewart
“Cajun culture is thought of as so hospitable and fun, and Louisiana’s a fun place, and everyone is having a good time—that’s what it’s known for,” he said. “People love that. I love that. But, I thought it would be interesting to explore what happens when you bring in Southern Gothic, in a Cajun way. To have that contrast and opportunity to drive home the point that—this isn’t all just for a good time, it’s not just for laughs, it’s not just for tourism. There’s a real depth, with potential and possibilities for storytelling. What happens when you present Cajun culture in a highbrow, arthouse sense?”
The result is a film that uses the dramatics and intrigue of Louisiana history and folklore, as well as the enchantment of a distinct sense of place, to explore a universal experience of generational tensions between a father and a daughter. “We have so much folklore here, that’s been around for so long, and is timeless,” said Reed. “And I love when that gets used in a way that’s original. Paying homage to these traditional stories, but then putting your own spin on it—that’s what keeps it going.”
Mick echoed the sentiment, saying, “Cory, as a really talented young storyteller, saw the potential in this evergreen folktale, and he saw the way you could still do something new, something that feels like a fresh take on that same story that is reflective of where we are, but also incorporates these characters and themes and ideas which have been present in Louisiana and elsewhere for a long time.” Mick also noted the significance of St. Ewart’s decision to consult local language experts to ensure that the story is represented with accuracy and care.
“If you’re producing a piece of art about Louisiana, and you want it to reflect something about our culture, handling the language carefully is, in my opinion, a huge part of that,” he said. “So, the fact that Cory, even not being a speaker himself, had the cultural awareness to seek out people who do work with the language and who know how to handle some of that and help out in those respects, I really admire. I think it shows a level of care and artistry that’s really important if you’re going to try to engage with culture in Louisiana.”
[Read more about the legacy of Longfellow's Evangeline in this story from our October 2021 issue.]
This degree of intentionality extended beyond language to every detail in the film, from finding the perfect location, to sourcing period-appropriate costumes, to utilizing local talent. “If we’re going to present Evangeline to the rest of the cinema world,” said St. Ewart, “as one of the very few examples of a period piece set in Acadiana, then I want it to be as close as we can to what a period piece in Acadiana should be. Because it matters.”
The final filming location was discovered after locations producer Bradley Gueho had scouted all across Acadiana—on a tip. Following the advice of another property owner in the Breaux Bridge area, he knocked on the door of former Cecilia football coach Lowell “PeeWee” Guidry, whose expansive and eclectic collection of historic artifacts spills fantastically across his yard, and includes several traditional Acadian-style cottages and structures, all arranged around a pond. “He’s like ‘alright, well you guys come to the back and check it out,’ and it was perfect.” When Guillot texted photos to St. Ewart, he immediately responded “This is exactly, exactly what we need.”
With a distinctly 18th century Louisiana backdrop, a script written in Louisiana French, and a language consultant on deck, St. Ewart started to assemble the rest of his cast and crew. By the end of it—besides one of his classmates from Columbia, Carsen Smith, who served as a producer—everyone involved in the project, from gaffing to makeup to set design, was a Louisiana talent. “Cory is nothing if not someone who wants to support cultural actors in this area,” said Mick. “He got accepted to Columbia, went to New York to study film, but came back here to shoot this film, and use local talent and local resources. I think that’s a real testament to the way that Cory wants to engage with people and lift them up.”
Reed, a culture bearer in her own right, had been part of the vision from the very beginning.
Courtesy of Cory St. Ewart.
A still of Renée Reed as Evangeline and Hick Cheramie as Theodule in Cory St. Ewart's short film inspired by Louisiana culture and folklore.
In his early research for the film, St. Ewart became captivated by her original song, “Où est la fée,” a folklore-inspired, swampy enchantment sung in Louisiana French, which tells of being drawn into the forest by a mysterious, magical being. “I fell in love with the song,” he said. “It fit the tone, the lyrics even played into the subject matter. I didn’t know if the actual song was going to make it into the film. And I didn’t know if Renée was going to be my Evangeline. I was just going with it.”
When he came home to Lafayette at the beginning of the summer, ready to assemble his cast, he told his set producer, Jon-David Mahoney (of Magic Bus Films) that he had modeled his idea of Evangeline off of Reed. “And JD was like, ‘Why don’t you just ask Renée?’”
In a mysterious act of kismet, Reed had just started to consider responding to some of the acting opportunities that occasionally landed in her inbox. A natural performer, but never having worked in front of a camera in this manner, she said acting “has always been something I’ve thought about and would enjoy doing, but I just never really pursued it.” But that summer, she had started to imagine what her dream role would be. As a longtime lover of Louisiana folklore, “it was actually Evangeline,” she said. “And then, I swear, it was a week later that Cory messaged me.”
Reed immediately agreed to be part of the project, despite having no acting experience. “I had no doubt that she would do a good job,” said St. Ewart. “She’s a performer, she’s in front of crowds all the time. I had faith in her, and faith in myself as a director.”
Cheramie, who got the role after responding to an online casting call (St. Ewart described receiving Cheramie’s resume and headshot—which features his archetypal beard—as ‘love at first sight’), admitted that when he learned his costar had never performed in front of a camera, he was skeptical. “Then she absolutely blew me away,” he said. “She was just a natural talent, and a joy to work with.”
St. Ewart said it was “divine providence” that he was able to secure such talent as Reed and Cheramie, both of Acadian descent themselves. Cheramie agrees that a higher power had a hand in it all, especially after discovering that the property where they shot the film had been the place his late father had evacuated to during Hurricane Katrina. “Once PeeWee found out who I am, he proceeded to tell me that he knew my father really well, and that my father loved this property,” he said. “So there I am in this room, like, ‘man my father was here, and he lived here for seven days, and he loved it here.’ So, was I supposed to do this film? Absolutely.”
The combination of connecting to his late father, having an opportunity to represent his ancestors on screen, and being able to work with so many other local talents in the industry made the filming experience one of Cheramie’s most profound yet as an actor. “This film changed my life,” he said.
St. Ewart assured that the final result, which will hit the festival circuit in 2024, will not disappoint. “I’ve never had a film that I was confident [in] coming out of the editing bay, like the flaws were always so glaring. This is not that film. I’ve never been so proud of anything I’ve made.” He’s already received positive feedback from his peers and professors at Columbia, but it’s the Louisiana audiences he is most eager to share it with. “People who have no attachment to the culture are enjoying the ride, so I can only imagine when it finally makes its premiere in Louisiana, how people are going to enjoy hearing Louisiana French on the big screen, seeing architecture they recognize. It’s them, but in a cinema sense. It’s a reflection of the community that I come from, that can only exist because of the community that I come from.”
