Lousiana Story follows a 12-year-old Cajun boy in Louisiana through his life in the bayou and then as an oil company sets up an oil-drilling operation. The film was financed by Standard Oil (even though Flaherty was unusually given full rights) so you shouldn't expect a cautionary tale of corporate spoilage of the environment; in fact some critics have considered it more a promotional piece for the wonders of modern corporations. Still, Flaherty was a bit more subtle than that though like all his films, Louisiana Story focuses most strongly on people and their environment. The film also boasts lush photography by Richard Leacock while the great composer/critic Virgil Thomson contributed a Pulitzer Prize winning score, the only time that award went to film music. Louisiana Story was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar and in 1994 was added to the National Film Registry.
The DVD has over two hours of insightful extras. Along with a half-hour excerpt from Flaherty's 1942 The Land, there's a lengthy interview with Flaherty's wife Frances, a separate half-hour excerpt from another full-length film this time about Frances' still photography called Hidden and Seeking, an audio commentary by Frances and Leacock for the film's famous opening scene, and the short "Letters Home" where an actor reads Leacock's letters to his wife during the filming. Taken together these add rich background to Flaherty's work.
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by Lang Thompson
