I Went to the Dance

Oct 13, 1989

1h 24m

★ 7.5

Overview

The definitive film on the history of the toe-tapping, foot-stomping music of French Southwest Louisiana. Includes many Cajun and Zydeco greats, featuring Michael Doucet and Beausoleil, Clifton Chenier, Marc and Ann Savoy, D.L. Menard, and many others.

Genres

Documentary

Music

Production Companies

Les Blank Films

I Went to the Dance Trailers

Cast

Self

Michael Doucet

Self

Clifton Chenier

Self

Marc Savoy

Self

Ann Savoy

Self

D. L. Menard

Self

Varise Conner

Self

George Broussard

Head to southern Louisiana with filmmaker Matthew Wilkinson to soak up one of the country's best-kept musical secrets: Lil' Band o' Gold, a group of seasoned musicians who churn out an eclectic blend of country, R & B and zydeco known as swamp pop. This lively documentary follows blues-rock legend C.C. Adcock as he scours the marshes and prairies of Acadiana to assemble a supergroup of diverse personalities, backgrounds and musical styles.

6.2

Belle River

Jan 28, 2022

In 2019 Mississippi spring flooding hits record highs. Residents of Pierre-Part, Louisiana, prepare for the worst, as authorities are expected to open the floodgates of the Morganza Spillway to save the cities of New Orleans and Bâton Rouge from flooding. Faith and resilience are their only defense.

6.7

Saving Pelican 895

Apr 1, 2011

HBO Documentary Films Presents the story of the effort to save the 895th surviving oiled pelican in Louisiana, showing how conservationists, government agencies and wildlife activists joined forces to preserve this one life.

4.5

Shelter

Jun 1, 2017

At the Covenant House, located on the outskirts of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, the doors never close, and there is always room for one more. On any given day, a constant stream of young people carrying everything they own in plastic garbage bags fills the courtyard. The prospective residents are just teenagers, but have already been labeled drug addicts, schizophrenics, criminals and outcasts. As one staff member puts it, “the most damaged population of youth that exists in society today”. Filming over the course of a full year, brothers Brent and Craig Renaud tell the raw and emotional stories of the incredible kids who seek shelter at the Covenant House, and the staff struggling to work miracles everyday on their behalf.

6.2

Syncopation

May 22, 1942

A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love.

0.0

Atchafalaya Houseboat

Dec 5, 2007

The Atchafalaya is a mysterious land, as much underwater as above. Its lush environment is home to alligators, egrets, black bears – and for a time two people who yearned for a simple, natural life. Atchafalaya Houseboat shares the experiences of Gwen Roland and her companion Calvin Voisin, who left civilization in the turmoil of the early 1970s for the unspoiled beauty of the nation’s largest river swamp, Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin.

7.0

Louisiana Blues

Jan 1, 1993

From the camera of celebrated French documentarians Jean-Pierre Bruneau and Jose Reynes, and in the tradition of The Buena Vista Social Club, comes the exhilarating musical documentary Louisiana Blues. From the backwoods of Baton Rouge to the heart the Big Easy, creole and Cajun music have endured despite years of tumult. This film explores not only the musicians who continue to produce this music, but the climate, culture, and way of life that have shaped them. Innumerable zydeco superstars appear onscreen and deliver legendary performances, including Beau Jocque, D.L. Menard, and Zydeco Joe.

7.0

Huey Long

Sep 28, 1985

Ken Burns' portrait of Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey Long.

4.0

Big Blue Goose

Oct 26, 1956

In this RKO Sportscope short, a naturalist and his wife go to Louisiana bayou country to hunt a particular species of goose.

6.6

Spend It All

Mar 13, 1972

Another short documentary of "Real Food, Roots Music, and People Full of Passion for what they do!", Spend It All is Les Blank's spirited look at the French-speaking Cajun community of southwest Louisiana. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

0.0

The Acadian Connection

Sep 30, 1995

National Film Board of Canada documentary of stories of Acadians (French Canadians from the eastern Maritime provinces). Hundreds of thousands of Acadians emigrated to Louisiana following deportation by the British during the Acadian Expulsion of the mid-18th century, hence the term 'Cajun.'

0.0

Zydeco

Jan 5, 1984

Shot on location in rural Southwestern Louisiana, Zydeco combines cinema verite style footage, interviews and musical performance to present a colorful, joyful portrait of the zydeco musicians in their culture. Featuring Dolon Carriere, Armand Ardoin, and Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin. A film by Nicholas R. Spitzer. Color, 57 minutes.

6.0

Louisiana Hayride

Jul 13, 1944

A naïve farm girl is duped by con men who promise her movie stardom in exchange for her savings.

7.2

Birds of America

May 25, 2022

In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.

4.0

The Main Stream

Dec 17, 2002

Humorist Roy Blount Jr. takes viewers on a journey down the Mississippi River, showcasing everything from areas with spectacularly beautiful scenery to ugly and dangerously polluted stretches bordered by industrial development.

7.0

Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy DeVille

Oct 31, 2024

The life and times of the most original American singer/ songwriter of the last 50 years.

0.0

John Kennedy Toole: The Omega Point

Jan 1, 2009

The life story of Pulitzer Prize winning author John Kennedy Toole as told by friends and colleagues. Legacy format production, representational photography and an original music score combine to bring the author's life into focus. His personal triumphs, his untimely death and the publication of the novel, 'A Confederacy of Dunces,' years after his suicide are all explored in this darkly beautiful first person narrative.