The 21st Cinema on the Bayou film festival will present 120 films, most of them world and U.S. premieres, Wednesday through Wednesday, Jan. 21-28.
Festival screenings will take place at Cité des Arts in downtown Lafayette and St. Landry Cinema in Opelousas. Befitting south Louisiana’s French heritage and Acadiana’s historic bond with French-speaking Canada, more than 40 of this year’s selections are in the French language.
Cinema on the Bayou’s opening night film, “R. Roussil: From the Ground Up,” screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, at Cité des Arts. A documentary about Robert Roussil, the Québécois sculptor who championed artistic freedom, the film examines his art and philosophy and visits his home of many years, an abandoned windmill in France.
Maxime-Claude L’Écuyer, the Montréal-based director of “R. Roussil: From the Ground Up” (https://lefifa.com/en/catalog/r-roussil-le-cul-par-terre) is among the more than 50 filmmakers and actors attending Cinema on the Bayou this year. The cinéastes are traveling from Tokyo, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans and Shreveport…