Foreign Film Conference At LSU

Foreign Film Conference: Exile, Migration, Identity
Louisiana State University

Balcony in the French Quarter of New Orleans

Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon, November 13-15, I attended a Foreign Film Conference at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. I presented a paper, "The Stalker's Dream," on a cult-favorite Russian Science Fiction film, Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.

Other presentations focused on Spanish, Italian, French, and Hebrew films, from Los Managers (Spain) to The Band's Visit (Israel).

My wife, Linda, gave a presentation about a French film, Nuit Noir, from 2007, about the massacre in Paris by French police in 1961 of at least two hundred unarmed Algerian men, women, and children, an incident suppressed until the past decade.

Linda and I flew into the New Orleans airport late Wednesday night; and before heading to Baton Rouge Thursday morning, we walked for a few hours in the French Quarter in New Orleans, an area that did not succumb to the Katrina floods.

And Friday evening after the presentations concluded, we drove to Lafayette, around an hour away, to visit a Biologist friend.

See this link for a look at the blog entry created for my friend, Dr. Beth Middleton, about a fascinating place not far from Madison, Wisconsin, the Lodi Marsh. I will return there this summer for more photography.

While in Lafayette, the Heart of Cajun Country, we three enjoyed sitting in the Blue Dog Cafe before heading to Prejean's Restaurant for Cajun food and music.

After my wife's presentation on Saturday morning, we headed back to New Orleans Airport for afternoon flights, but not before taking a picture of the White Heron included here.

I posted a few photographs from the trip.