The 2018 Louisiana International Film Festival

A few of the particularly Southern stories at this year's film festival

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Welcoming indie enthusiasts, thriller junkies, the docu-devotee, and the seeker of new perspectives, the Louisiana International Film Festival is returning to the Cinemark Theatre on Perkins Rowe from April 19—22. Since 2011, LIFF has sought to showcase both international and local filmmakers while offering a weekend of film, music and education to attendees. “At this festival we have movies playing on five screens from 6 pm on Friday, until 7:30 or 8:pm on Sunday,” said festival programmer Ian Birnie. “So, in any given two to three hour time frame you have a choice of five different films. There are forty-eight feature films in total and five blocks of over twenty-five shorts - fiction, animation and documentaries.” He said that what excites him most about the festival is that for three whole days, the people of Baton Rouge have access to films on the big screen that would otherwise never make it to our city.

Here are a few must-sees:

Lauren Durr’s debut documentary, 1000 Year Flood, tells a story all too familiar to residents of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas. Integrating poignant shots of destructive waters, wrenching interviews, and eye-opening explorations into government abandonment, Durr tells the story of Louisiana’s Great Flood of 2016 and the people left behind. A story of ‘unimaginable’ devastation, Durr captures in it the resilience and heroism of a people as they rebuild their community and ensure that this never happens again.

Director Sonny Marler and debut producer Tom Bhramayana, a native of Louisiana, present Tinker, a moving ode to fatherhood against a background of empty agrarian landscapes and an intertwined science fiction mystique. When a withdrawn farmer falls upon a secret, plans to an electro-magnetic powered machine, he realizes that it could save his farm and actually change the world. In the midst of his efforts to build the machine, he learns that he is the sole beneficiary of his late sister’s six-year-old son. The film has won nominations and awards across the country in countless categories since its release in June 2017.

In The King, Eugene Jarecki gathers together a motley group of Elvis fans including Emmylou Harris, Greil Marcus, Ethan Hawke, Ashton Kutcher, and Alec Baldwin on a trek across the South. In Elvis’ 1963 Rolls Royce, these faces and more weave in and out of a musical and spiritual journey through America. Jarecki melds a kind of socio-political commentary on the decline of American society, paralleled with Elvis’ own unraveling, with a journey through human reflection, authenticity, and song.

The entire slate and schedule for the Louisiana International Film Festival can be found at lifilmfest.org.

This article originally appeared in our April 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.