Louisiana Story

Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) was one of the pioneers of the documentary genre, making use of reenacted screenplays in his famous documentary. A technique he revisited in Louisiana Story, his last film (and a personal favourite of Robert Bresson); a kind of rural idyl about a young Cajun boy who, with his pet – a racoon – is descending the river in the bayou. The production was commissioned by Standard Oil, and the pastoral scenes are interspersed with the hum of the machinery from a newly constructed drilling operation, which will change the area forever.