Three Lafayette filmmakers took top honors in the New Orleans Film Festival , which wrapped up last night. The festival’s biggest honor, Louisiana Filmmaker of the Year, went to Zach Godshall for his film, God’s Architects. The film is a documentary that tells the stories of five divinely inspired artist-architects and their enigmatic creations. Godshall details how and why these oft-marginalized creators, with neither funding nor blueprints, construct their self-made environments.
Raised on Rice and Gravy, the second film by the UL Cinematic Arts Workshop team of Conni Castille and Allison Bohl to score at the NOFF, received the Documentary Short Award. Raised on Rice and Gravy focuses on local plate lunch cooks Roy Williams, Wayne Gary and Merlene Herbert, and how their down-home cooking is an integral part of both Cajun and Creole culture.
“It means more to me to win an award at the New Orleans film festival,” says Bohl, “than at any other festival because it’s a Louisiana content film at a Louisiana competition.” “And,” adds Castille, “because it’s a film about food in the food capital of the world.”
In 2007, Bohl and Castille’s film, I Always Do My Collars First, won the Louisiana Filmmaker of the Year award.