Go watch Tootie’s Last Suit at the New Orleans Film Festival on October 17, 7pm (one show only) at Canal Place.
Executive producer, Randy Fertel, says:
… What I knew before was beads and feathers and Claiborne and Orleans. Now I know something about a fully-articulated culture right beneath our noses that is an eloquent rebuttal of white Mardi Gras. Post-Katrina, that is a loaded and very important subject.
The film explores the conflict between “chief of chiefs” Tootie Montana and Darryl after Tootie gave his tribe to his son. It uses that conflict as a vehicle to explore the culture … The conflict between generations is compelling. Many have found they need their handkerchiefs at the ready when we lose Tootie (on camera) and when 2 months later, we lose New Orleans as we know it.
… In sum this is a dazzling film that will explain much about New Orleans even to New Orleanians, let alone to Americans in general. It is a tribute and a dirge to an indigenous art form and community and a call for their return. That is a message that needs to be heard in New Orleans and beyond.
I met Big Chief Tootie’s widow and their son, Darryl, at a Jazzfest party this year. While Washboard Chaz and his friends played in the backyard, Miss Joyce described losing her husband and being separated from her home soon after due to Katrina and the Flood. Here was New Orleans royalty opening up to me with such warmth and a big, sad smile on her face, while introducing me to family members who surrounded her. Wow. New Orleans, you are nothing if not real and surreal.
Dammit I want to see that one. But I’ve already got something I’m supposed to do on Wednesday night.