Louisiana Boys
Winner of the Silver Baton, Alfred I DuPont-Columbia University Award.
An unorthodox look at the colorful, Byzantine political culture of Louisiana, home to governors like the legendary Huey Long and his brother Earl (who was committed to an asylum during his last term), Jimmie Davis (who sang his farewell to the Legislature), the roguish four-time elected Edwin Edwards and reactionary, racist figures like Judge Leander Perez and David Duke. Earl Long said it best in the 1950s: "One of these days Louisianans are going to get good government... and they ain't going to like it!" Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics looks at the history and the contemporary condition of this political circus, from the populist tradition of the Longs, the emerging power of Blacks in New Orleans, and the traditional three-way split (conservative-Protestant Northern Louisiana, Cajun-Catholic Southern Louisiana, and urban New Orleans) that has kept the state's political culture a popular spectator sport.
"Louisiana Boys — Raised on Politics" was supported by grants from Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Southern Educational Communications Association, and the Mary Freeman Wisdom Foundation.
A production of The Center for New American Media and Midnight Films.