The five-day film fest returns to the Hub City Wednesday with premieres, parties and personalities.
Among the Louisiana premieres at this year's Cinema on the Bayou will be filmmaker Juli Jackson's 2014 dark comedy, "45RPM," a road trip movie about a struggling artist's quest to find a rare vinyl single recorded decades ago by her late father.
The 9th annual Cinema on the Bayou film festival returns to Lafayette Wednesday for a five-day celebration of independent film.
The festival, created by award-winning Acadiana filmmaker Pat Mire, kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Acadiana Center for the Arts with the Louisiana premier of Phil Comeau's Secretariat's Jockey, Ron Turcotte. The documentary is kind of a sports travelogue about the legendary Canadian jockey, one of the few in the sport to win America's Triple Crown of horse racing. Comeau, an award-winning Canadian filmmaker, will be on hand for the premiere and for shmoozing at a post-screening reception. Cinema on the Bayou will also serve as a retrospective of Comeau's career, with screenings of other Comeau works throughout.
The festival closes on Sunday at the AcA with another Louisiana premiere: This Ain't No Mouse Music!, a recounting of the story of Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz, who took the Lomax concept of field recordings and turned it into a commercial archive of American folk music. The premiere will be followed by a performance by Ann Savoy & Friends with Michael Doucet.
Nearly 40 films will be screened throughout the five-day event, with satellite locations at Vermilionville, the Lafayette Public Library's south branch, Pack & Paddle and Cité des Arts. The screenings at the library and Pack & Paddle are free. Tickets for the events at the other venues can be purchased through the venues or at the door. More than 30 filmmakers from across North America will be in attendance.
For a complete schedule of events and further information on how to become involved, check out Cinema on the Bayou's website.