Film: “Faubourg Tremé—The Untold Story of Black New Orleans”

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Film Showing & Discussion

“Faubourg Tremé—The Untold Story of Black New Orleans”

A documentary film about the radical Black history of New Orleans on the 6th anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans was largely shot before the Katrina tragedy but edited afterward, giving the film both a celebratory and elegiac tone. It is a film of such effortless intimacy, subtle glances and authentic details that only two native New Orleanians could have made it.

During slavery, Faubourg Tremé—a neighborhood near the French Quarter—was home to the largest community of free Black people in the Deep South and a hotbed of political ferment. Black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor co-habitated, collaborated, and clashed to create much of what defines New Orleans culture up to the present day.

The film tells the history of the radical roots of this New Orleans community where during slavery, Black people could earn their freedom and purchase a house. Where sit-ins, almost a century before Rosa Parks, won the integration of public transportation.

The film concludes with the new challenges facing the Black community after the Katrina disaster. It does not just commemorate, but reminds us that U.S. society still confronts the same battles that the residents of Tremé have waged through two centuries—demands for economic justice, voting rights, equal education, decent public services, in short, full citizenship for African Americans. 2007, 67 min.

$6 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)