Director Dawn Logsdon talks about her film Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story Of Black New Orleans, the history of the Faubourg Tremé, a historic neighborhood in New Orleans. The film shows journalist and co-director Lolis Eric Elie renovating his 19th-century house in a rapidly changing neighborhood. Click here to learn more about Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story Of Black New Orleans and to view clips of the movie.
JB: How did you first get started on this project?
DL: New Orleans is my hometown and after years of editing docs about other places and people, I decided it was time to go home—both literally and creatively. The trigger for me was the death of my father who was a local historian and a civil rights activist in New Orleans. Because of him, I’d grown up immersed in the subjects of this film, but it wasn’t until after he died that I decided to tackle his passions in my own work. I recruited Lolis Eric Elie, the writer and co-director, because I knew he was also obsessed with New Orleans history and culture and very outspoken about its preservation. He also lives in Faubourg Tremé and was writing funny columns in the paper at the time about his renovation fiascos. I thought it would be entertaining to follow him on the rest of that journey. The funniest parts didn’t make it into the final cut because the film got a lot more serious after Katrina.
JB: The passion for your subject matter comes through so strongly throughout the film. What’s the biggest challenge to you as a filmmaker when you are working on a project so close to your heart?
DL: We discovered so many amazing unknown historical nuggets and interviewed so many wonderful subjects that the biggest challenge was editing down an overabundance of good material into a coherent film. This is a common problem in documentary editing but our difficulties were exacerbated by the fact that this was our hometown and we knew many of the interviewees personally so we found ourselves losing perspective. It also didn’t help that I was directing a feature length doc for the first time and also editing the film. My background is as an editor, so once we got to that stage of the filmmaking I thought I’d be coasting. Instead it was by far the hardest editing project I’d ever done because I was so attached to the material! Just like every director I’ve ever edited for ...We finally solved that hurdle by bringing in other editors toward the end. They [Sam Green and Aljernon Tunsil] really helped us craft a film that speaks to a national audience, not just New Orleanians. And I’m happy that the historical details that got cut will be in the DVD extras of our educational DVD.
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