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Film to Shoot at Local Festival

Project will be showcased at Cannes event


Another film production company has selected Lafayette as the location to shoot and produce one of its feature films.

Crews from London-based Matador Pictures will be in town next week, shooting some scenes at Festival International de Louisiane for Dirt Road to Lafayette, a collaboration of writer James Kelman, director Kenny Glenaan and producers Charlotte Walls and Nigel Thomas.

"One of the interesting aspects of this movie is that it's heavy on the music of our culture, especially the zydeco and Cajun music," said Marcus Brown, Lafayette Entertainment Initiative liaison and owner of Believe Entertainment. "It's something that really plays a role in the story."

Brown said Matador officials visited the Lafayette area last year, looking at the geography and other aspects of Acadiana to see if it would fit with the film. Within a few weeks, those conversations became more detailed, especially when they learned that Lafayette has a substantial base of creative and production talent already in place.

Active Entertainment, a production company with its headquarters in Lafayette, will provide services for the project, Brown said.

"They will be shooting during Festival, because part of the story takes place with the main character discovering and experiencing the great music and culture that's a part of it," Brown said. "They will only be shooting a portion of it there, then they will come back in the fall and shoot the rest of it."

Matador plans to showcase elements of the project during this year's Festival de Cannes and inside the Louisiana/Acadiana region pavilion at the international film festival. LEI, along with representatives from Lafayette, Iberia and Acadia parishes, will be the first U.S. region to host a pavilion in Cannes' history.

The Daily Advertiser

written by Amanda McElfresh

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