Local Beasts

As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child and as such, it took a whole community of talented people to bring Beasts of the Southern Wild into this world. And as our little film grows bigger and shines brighter, the people who helped make it and the community that Beasts was born from are seizing the moment and doing more with their exceptional gifts. We wanted to shout out members of the Beasts community, friends, neighbors, and like-minded individuals who are up to new things and doin' us proud.

Quvenzhané Wallis has already locked in her next role in Steve McQueen's 12 Years and a Slave. The story centers around a man living in New York during the mid-1800s who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the deep south.  Even better, Dwight Henry also plays a role in the film, reuniting our Hushpuppy and Wink. It's slated for release in 2013.

Can't Stop the Water tells the story of Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana and the Native American community fighting to save its culture as its land washes away. For 170 years, a tribe of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians has occupied Isle de Jean Charles, an island deep in the Louisiana bayous. They have fished, hunted, and lived off the land. Now the land that has sustained them for generations is vanishing before their eyes. Years of gas and oil exploration have ravaged the surrounding marsh, leaving the island defenseless against the ocean tide that will eventually destroy it. As Chief Albert Naquin desperately looks for a way to bring his tribe together on higher ground, those that remain on the island cling to the hope that they can stay. Produced by Cottage Films in Association with Chicken and Egg Pictures.

Can't Stop the Water is a documentary being made by our friend Rebecca Ferris at Cottage Films. It's about Isle De Jean Charles, a real place in Terrebone Parish, Louisiana that served as our topographic inspiration for the Bathtub.

Tchoupitoulas is a story of the New Orleans night. Abstractly aural and visual, it is a sensory document of one night in the many lives of a thriving nocturnal populace. Three young boys act as our wide-eyed conduits to a parade of entertainers and revelers as they dance through the lamp lit streets and doorways of the Crescent City.

Tchoupitoulas is a grantee of Cinereach (Beasts is a Cinereach production), also was produced by Court 13's Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, and Josh Penn! It was shot in New Orleans, taking place over one dreamy evening in the French Quarter.

Meanwhile, Dwight Henry is making things happen all over the map. Aside from his part in 12 Years and a Slave, the Hollywood Reporter writes that Dwight's expanding his Buttermilk Drop Bakery to a second outpost on Malcolm X Blvd in Harlem. He's also announced plans to join forces with Wendell Pierce to open Sterling Farms, a chain of markets in New Orleans food deserts, selling local produce and catering to the needs of low-income shoppers.  Go Dwight!