The College of Humanities and Social Sciences will present a lecture Friday featuring two award-winning filmmakers to speak about their film’s roots to Louisiana folklore and the threat of coastal erosion as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series.
The “Belizaire to Beasts: Louisiana Folklore and Filmmaking” lecture will feature Benh Zeitlin, resident of New Orleans and Oscar-nominated director for his award-winning film “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” and Lafourche Parish native Glen Pitre, known for his first English language film, “Belizaire the Cajun.”
The filmmakers are speaking as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Department of English, the College of the Coast and Environment, the Program for the Study of Film and Media Studies and the Louisiana Folklore Society.
The concept for the lecture came from Carolyn Ware, associate professor of English and member of the Louisiana Folklore Society’s executive board. She said it would be interesting to have Zeitlin speak because he is the son of folklorists, and Pitre, a mentor to Zeitlin and friend to the Louisiana Folklore Society.
“We are interested in how folklore and traditional ways of life are presented not only in ‘Beast of the Southern Wild,’ but in Glen Pitre’s film as well,” Ware said.
Ware said the topic of endangered coastal environments will be a key talking point for the evening’s events, as both filmmakers depict the threat of communities and its folk traditions as a result of the decaying Louisiana coasts.
According to associate professor of oceanography and coastal sciences Larry Rouse, preserving the coasts saves the seafood and the oil and gas industry, but it saves the communities as well.
“The films talk about how the lifestyle of people has changed as a result of the coastal environment,” Rouse said. “If you look beyond the storyline [in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”], it’s about how people are responding to devastating changes in the coastal environment.”
Ware said folk traditions help people rebuild after disasters such as hurricanes and the BP Oil Spill.
“When people are hurt and lives have been disrupted, coming back to those traditions are part of the rebuilding process,” Ware said. “The coast is a great cultural incubator.”
A question and answer session will accompany the discussion of the endangered Louisiana coasts and insight into each of the filmmakers start in filmmaking.
The lecture is open and free to the public. It will be held at 7 p.m. in the Dalton J. Woods Auditorium in the Energy, Coast and Environment Building.