Over two years in the making, the latest documentary from filmmakers Conni Castille and Allison Bohl, King Crawfish, will debut at the Bayou Bijou Theatre Thursday, June 24.The film unites two crawfish tales: the joyous abandon of the Cajuns at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival with the water and land rights battles between private land owners and the Atchafalaya Basin crawfishermen.
In King Crawfish, the Cajun spirit is poured out on a communal table, even as the wild harvest is diminishing. At the Crawfish Festival, everything Cajuns value takes to the stage – language, music, food, dance, and the symbol of their culture, the crawfish. Thousands of pounds of crawfish get served up at the festival, much of it coming from their natural habitat, the Atchafalaya Basin. But, as the film traces the crustacean from festival to Basin, it finds fishermen fighting to retain their way of life in one small fishing community.
“One of the layers in the film is about carrying on tradition,” says Castille. “What we find is the continuation of the festival tradition looking very promising. But, the traditional fishing practices in the Basin, not so much.”
“It was a challenging story to film,” says Bohl, the film’s director of photography and editor. “What I try to do when I shoot, is convey emotion and information, in an artful way. In King Crawfish, the parallel stories, although connected by the crawfish, are different emotionally.”
King Crawfish is the third documentary from directing team Castille and Bohl, following on the heels of the award-winning I Always Do My Collars First (2007) and Raised on Rice Gravy (2009), both UL Cinematic Arts Workshop productions.
The film was funded in part by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council. Funding has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
King Crawfish will premier at 7 p.m. June 24 at the Bayou Bijou Theatre inside the Student Union on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
... written by James Guidry , June 11, 2010 - 02:38 am
Its their any way I could get a copy or is their somewhere I can go on the web to see the Crawfish King documentary. I now live in Houston but grew up in Breaux Bridge, I'm glad someone is trying to save the basin; I spent many years hunting and fishing in it and their is now other place like it. send me an e-mail @
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Thanks!!
... written by Genell Bodoin , June 11, 2010 - 06:11 pm
Mais, that's my brother cher. Go figure that. Yes, my little brother, Jody Meche. We always said he would make a good advocate (lawyer in french). He ain't scared.
... written by Nadia Bienvenu , June 14, 2010 - 04:24 pm
... written by LIsa Vicknair-Rush , June 17, 2010 - 11:32 pm
I grews up in the bayous and my dad fished ALL HIS LIFE there, so did my brothers and sisters... it was be very heartbreaking to loose this beautiful culture and way of living.. for most that live there.. its all they know.. we must work hard to protect our waterways and keep them available for the fishermen to feed their families and preserve the beauty God has given these wonderful, hardworking people of Lousiana
... written by Albert Granger , December 09, 2010 - 03:33 pm
My family has also fished the basin all of my life it mkaes me tear up to think just the changes in swamp from when i was a kid only 20 years ago. I think Jody is a great representative of the "WAY OF LIFE" that needs to be presserved. I would also like to buy a copy of this Film if someone could please send me info to
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I would appreciatte it.
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