Film

How do you say Forked Island?

by Christiaan Mader

Filmmaker Nicholas Campbell looks to explore cultural division in Louisiana's not-so-distant past through a dramatic series currently vying for a grant.

No one says Forked Island correctly. I tell filmmaker Nicholas Campbell, whose series of that name is in final contention for a $50,000 prize via the inaugural #CreateLouisiana grant, that I pronounce it “Fork-head Island,” and he chuckles.

“No one says île fourchue, which is how it’s pronounced in French,” he tells me. The title embodies the theme — cultural and social tines diverging onto separate paths. This is an example of what his series Forked Island will explore through an inter-generational drama— the barriers created by a change in language within a single culture.

On Oct. 22, Campbell and his team will unveil a full-stop, ready-to-roll presentation of the proposed series to #CreateLouisiana partners Deep South Studios, New Orleans Film Society and Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. As one of five projects still in the running, Campbell’s passion project has a shot at achieving full funding through the grant to start filming in March 2016. Campbell, a Lafayette native whose credits include a handful of high profile music videos, commercials, short films and pilots is the writer and director on the project produced in collaboration with Marcus and Yvette Brown of Believe Entertainment.

Based in part on Campbell’s own experiences visiting his grandfather on Forked Island, the series will explore the social and cultural fracturing that befalls a Cajun family in rural south Vermilion Parish through decades of growth, departure, poverty and prosperity. It’s a complex story that swirls around Louisiana’s mid-century identity crisis, that tugged it to and from Americanization and French heritage, subsistence farming and rough-necking.

Concept still from 'Forked Island' look book

“As I have discussed this with people, there’s this immediate disconnect between one generation and the next,” Campbell tells me. “I’d go visit my grandfather who refused to speak English I think because he was intimidated by it. My dad lost the ability speak French. We’d make this trek to rural Louisiana to visit this country home and there was just silence.”

Campbell’s fictional family mirrors the dynamic of his own family history. His father left Forked Island to seek better economic opportunity in Lafayette. That makes Campbell, a consummate suburbanite, only two generations removed from intimacy with south Acadiana folk roots.

“My father really grew up in a poverty stricken environment. His father was widowed. He grew up without a mother. His dad was evolving away from this agrarian upbringing, did tenant farming, and ended up working for the state building roads,” Campbell reflects. “I grew up in the suburbs reading comics and eating Hostess cupcakes.”

If Forked Island wins the grant, the money will go to production of the series pilot, which currently has interest from top distributors, including possible secondary market interest from TV 5 Monde. Campbell will source much of the talent needed for the proposed seven-season narrative arc from around Louisiana and other parts of the francophone world. Currently attached to the project is two-time Genie winner (Canadian Oscar) Roy Dupuis, a Québécois actor know for his role in the late-90s spy drama series La Femme Nikita.

Campbell will shoot Forked Island in Louisiana, drawing from what he considers to be still untapped reservoir of talent.

“There’s a lot of talent here and it’s still just not tapped into. I grew up here and I know people who have been doing this for a couple decades and had to leave to find success,” Campbell says. “The goal is to develop content in this pocket of Louisiana. Drawing from around here helps with the authenticity of the project.”

Even if they come up short in the #CreateLouisiana bid, Campbell says he and his team plan to push the project forward. Preparation for the upcoming presentation has yielded a pitch-ready product that Campbell is confident will attract interest from investors.

At the very least, his work will teach us how to say Forked Island correctly.