The Kasi Lemmons-directed “Southern gothic” film Eve’s Bayou starring Baton Rouge native Lynn Whitfield will have a special screening on Friday, August 21 as a kick off to the New Orleans Film Society’s  (NOFS) inaugural “Why Film Matters” series. In addition to the screening, Lemmons and Whitfield will discuss the film with NOFS Programming Manager Zandashé Brown.

Filmed in southeast Louisiana in late 1996, Eve’s Bayou is a classic of Black cinema. Lemmons and the Eve’s Bayou cast—including Jurnee Smollett, Samuel L. Jackson, Vondie Curtis Hall, Debbi Morgan, Diahann Carroll, Branford Marsalis and Allen Toussaint—was filmed in Covington, Madisonville, Napoleonville and Thibodaux. Smollett, currently in HBO’s Lovecraft Country, plays Eve, the psychic 10-year-old daughter of Dr. Louis and Roz Batiste (Jackson and Whitfield). New Orleans’ Terence Blanchard composed the musical score. A female-dominated story set in a small Creole town in 1962, the lyrical Eve’s Bayou follows a magical realism style. Cinematographer Amy Vincent rendered the Louisiana that Lemmons envisioned in her original screenplay as a mystical place of land and water and oak trees.

“Why Film Matters” will showcase noteworthy Louisiana films in an online format to provide film lovers a means of celebrating cinema safely. Due to the prohibition of large public gatherings, fans are invited to screen the films from home and participate in conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #EvesBayouReunion beginning at 3:30 p.m. Central this Friday. The NOFS Twitter account will be live tweeting the event, providing fans with little-known trivia. During the livestream event, audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions about the film through a live chat as well as the opportunity to have their questions answered during the final 20 minutes of the event.

Noted film critic Roger Ebert said of Eve’s Bayou,“That Lemmons can make a film this good on the first try is like a rebuke to established filmmakers.”  Two years ago, the film was selected to be included in the Library of Congress’ prestigious National Film Registry.

A 10-minute documentary about the legacy of Eve’s Bayou and produced by the New Orleans Film Society will make its debut during this online event. The documentary includes contributions from producer Gina Charbonnet, film professor Simone Drake, Louisiana-based artist Lee Laa Rae Guillory, film preservationist Mike Mashon, film critic and scholar Carrie McClain, film critic and podcaster Gena Radcliffe.

Registration for this event is required and can be done so here.

For more information on the New Orleans Film Society, including its flagship New Orleans Film Festival, click here.