Southern Glossary: Southern documentaries at NOLA Film Fest

This post comes from our friends at Southern Glossary, who are bringing us New Orleans Film Festival spotlights throughout the week, leading up to opening night on Thursday, October 16. Here’s a quick list of documentary screenings that focus on the South:

THE GREAT INVISIBLE

Director Margaret Brown, who previously documented the segregated Mardi Gras celebrations of Mobile, Alabama, in her 2008 film The Order of Myths, presents a wide-angle look at the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. The effects of the greatest man-made ecological disaster are still playing out across the Gulf Coast, and the film looks at everyone from fishermen to oil rig technicians to lawyers for BP to explain and investigate the causes and effects. – Monday, October 20, 2014, 7:45 p.m. – Prytania Theatre

BIG MOCCASIN

First-time filmmakers Chelsea and Andrew Moynehan spent months in a rural community in southwestern Virginia to create this close look at one corner of Appalachia. The stories and beliefs of four residents living along Big Moccasin Road provide the center of a documentary that is also rich in scenery and the bluegrass and gospel music that is so identifiable with the region. – Saturday, October 18, 2014, 3:15 p.m. & Thursday, October 23, 2014, 6:15 p.m – Theatres at Canal Place

CAST THE FIRST STONE

Angola Prison has such a mythic reputation, even for a Southern penitentiary, that it’s almost easy to overlook the personal stories of the inmates themselves, but Cast the First Stone gives us a unique access point to some of them as they come together to put on an amateur theatrical production of the Gospel story. The film follows the director and cast as they rehearse over a span of two years, with the support of warden Burl Cain, and finally make their debut to an outside audience. – Monday, October 20, 2014, 8:15 p.m. – Contemporary Arts Center & Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 3:30 p.m. – Prytania Theatre

61 BULLETS

This documentary focuses on the mystery left in the wake of famed Louisiana governor Huey P. Long’s assassination in the State Capitol. The perceived assassin, Dr. Carl Weiss, a respected doctor with seemingly too much to lose in such a suicidal attempt on Long, was instantly shot down by the titular 61 bullets. The film explores the aftermath in both the Long and Weiss families’ lives and explores questions that, at the time, were quickly buried along with the men. – Friday, October 17, 2014, 7:45 p.m. – Prytania Theatre & Sunday,October 19, 2014, 3:45 p.m. – Contemporary Arts Center

Buy tickets and see full listing info, including information about filmmakers in attendance at these films, at the New Orleans Film Society website. Visit Southern Glossary for feature previews and more through the festival.