The Louisiana Film Foundation is reminding the culturally minded that three days remain in 2009 to make a tax-deductible donation. The rate of the return on the investment is tangible — films about and set in Louisiana, produced by Louisiana filmmakers. LFF’s mission is to provide educational and financial support to young filmmakers and to “promote the art of filmmaking in Louisiana and assist, through charitable measures, the growth of the statewide film industry by providing grants for production, development and packaging of projects which have a strong tie to promoting the culture and history of Louisiana.”
The foundation focuses its support on projects it considers Louisiana treasures, based on their themes and stories. The first project of 2010 funded in part through the LFF is based on the life of New Orleans author John Kennedy Toole, whose comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces, published posthumously in 1980, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. A biopic based on the 2001 Toole biography Ignatius Rising is set to go into production in 2010 with a cinematic release in 2011. Next year also marks the centennial of filmmaking in Louisiana, and to celebrate the milestone the LFF will underwrite a remake of the first film made in the state, Faust, which will be shown in schools across Louisiana. The LFF is also in the final stage of planning its premier film festival.
The LFF is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization that relies on individual and corporate donations. To help the agency further filmmaking in Louisiana, send a check to: Louisiana Film Foundation, Inc. c/o D.G. Skrmetta, Secretary, P.O. Box 55896, Metairie, LA 70055. For more on the LFF, visit their Web site.