Tonight, Vermilionville hosts a special Les Vues Free Film Series showing of Chana Gazit's "Fatal Flood," which is a documentary that is much more than a chronicle of one of America's greatest natural disasters–the dramatic story of politics, race and honor, and one that marks the end of an era and the beginning of another.
Last month’s screening of the film “Fatal Flood” was cancelled along with the rest of the events planned for the end of the month due to flooding in Vermilionville’s historic village and folklife park.
In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River went on a rampage. Racing south from Cairo, Illinois, the river blew away levee after levee, inundating thousands of farms and hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving nearly a million homeless. By the time it reached New Orleans, the flood had not only altered the landscape of 27,000 square miles -- an area the size of four New England States -- it had widened the abyss of race relations in the Deep South.
Ultimately, “Fatal Flood,” which was written, directed and produced by Chana Gazit, is much more than a chronicle of one of America's greatest natural disasters; it's a dramatic story of politics, race, and honor, one that marks the end of an era and the beginning of another.
This showing was originally scheduled for August, but was cancelled due to the floods that ravaged South Louisiana earlier that month. Dr. Michael Martin from the Center for Louisiana Studies will be curating Monday night's film showing, and they will have free seafood gumbo.
Michael S. Martin is director of the Center for Louisiana Studies and holds the Cheryl Courrégé Burguières/Board of Regents Professorship in History at UL Lafayette. His research interests focus on 20th-century Louisiana, and his most recent publications include Russell Long: A Life in Politics (2014), Louisiana Legacies: Readings in the History of the Pelican State (as co-editor, 2013), Louisiana Beyond Black and White: Recent Interpretations of Twentieth-Century Race and Race Relations (as editor, 2011) and Historic Lafayette (2007). Martin is managing editor of the journal Louisiana History, published quarterly by the Louisiana Historical Association.
Admission to Les Vues is free, but the usual suggested $5 donation, which normally goes to cover curating and screening costs, will be donated to flood victims via the Community Foundation of Acadiana. For more information, click here.
Les Vues Film Series screens “Fatal Flood” on Monday, Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Vermilionville. For more information visit http://Vermilionville.org.