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

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.

7.0

Huey Long

Sep 28, 1985

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

6.6

Hot Pepper

Nov 22, 1973

A musical portrait of Zydeco King Clifton Chenier, who combines the pulsating rhythms of Cajun dance music and black R&B with African overtones, belting out his irresistible music in the sweaty juke joints of South Louisiana.

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.

7.0

I Am One of the People

May 16, 2022

Harmful chemicals are disproportionately affecting Black communities in Southern Louisiana along the Mississippi River. I am One of the People is an experimental short film exposing the environmental racism of “Cancer Alley.”

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.

No Image Available

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.

0.0

Bad Boy of Bonsai

May 16, 2022

Bad Boy of Bonsai is an experimental art-house documentary that focuses on Guy Guidry, a Louisiana local, and his passion for bonsai.

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.

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.

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.

5.5

Acadiana

Jan 26, 2019

May 2017. As the new President of the United States takes his ease in the White House, the city of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, is the theatre of the mythic Crawfish Festival. It's just another day, in America.

0.0

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.

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.