New Orleans Film Festival

Not even hurricane Ida could stop the 32nd edition of the New Orleans Film Festival that is running thru Nov 14. As THE most diverse film fest, just this year, NOFF was voted one of the “25 best film festivals of 2021 worldwide” by Moviemaker Magazine.

Not even hurricane Ida could stop this festival, which started on Nov 5. New Orleanians do not like when we call them resilient, so let’s just say they are masters at success against all odds.

Tickets or credentials to a festival these days are mostly virtual. Organizers all over the world have had to adapt to the rules of 2020.

The 30th New Orleans Film Festival ended with Kasi Lemmon’s new film Harriet, about Harriet Tubman, the African American Joan of Arc who lead over 700 slaves to safety on the Underground Railroad in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and whose face would be on the 20 dollar bill, if the current President had not nixed this plan as soon as he took office. Tubman is played by British singer/actress Cynthia Erivo and moviegoers will recognize cast members like Vondie Curtis-Hall, Joe Alwyn, Vanessa Bell-Calloway and others.

The 30th edition of the New Orleans Film Festival kicked off Wednesday night with Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Sadly, the film’s stars could not make it but that didn’t stop the city from having a party that started out a little differently from the years before: the normally bustling Roosevelt Way in front of the legendary Orpheum Theater, where opening nights are traditionally held, was unusually quiet.

The movie that the New Orleans Film Festival picked for their opening night could not have been better: director Peter Farrelly's Green Book is based on the true story of African American concert pianist Don Shirley, who decides to tour the Deep South. A great idea except it is 1962 and he needs protection, so the record company hires Italian-American New Yorker Tony “Lip” Vallelonga to drive him around and run interference in dicey situations.

Louisiana is still one of the leading states for film and TV production, despite Atlanta’s new reign as “Hollywood East”. But the draw for independent as well as studio productions to shoot in the magical city of New Orleans, rich in history and visually stunning from the legendary French Quarter to the surrounding nature, is still strong (right now, there are three TV series and seven films shooting in the city).

The film festival gets under way in the Crescent City, which has become a hub for film production. It may have been the biggest opening night the New Orleans Film Festival has ever seen.