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Crawfish and Freys (1996)
This finely woven and immensely appealing ethnographic documentary examines Southwestern Louisiana, where it illustrates how shares history, language, music, cuisine, and agriculture combine to create and perpetuate community and family ties.
 
The film focuses on the extended, multi-generational Frey family, whose vibrant members narrate the film and covey a strong sense of their lifestyle, traditions, warmth, and values. Descendants of German immigrants, the Freys have blended German ingenuity with French Acadian (Cajun) culture and built up a profitable system of rice cultivation and crawfish breeding in their rice ponds.

By capturing the unique flavor of their crawfish and rice-based economy, the rhythms, tones, and melodies of their dialect and music traditions, and the pleasure and pride they take in their work and in one another's company, the film provides a remarkable depiction of how families come together to create identity and culture.
 
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
 
Linda Haskins is an independent producer with over 25 years experience in documentary, public affairs, and educational programs. Her films and videos have received top awards in numerous national and international competitions and festivals. In 1987 she founded her own production company, Take Ten, Inc. Linda writes, directs and edits most of her productions. She has directed a diverse range of talent from children to celebrities. Documentaries exploring personal stories are among her credits such as Through My Sights, a program about World War II aired nationally on PBS; and Crawfish & Freys, a depiction of an intergenerational Cajun family in Louisiana. Her work also covers children s television including producer/director credits on the acclaimed PBS Reading Rainbow series, and documentaries for Kansas Public Television, Kansas Kids: Make It Matter, and Deadly Fumes. Most recently, Linda completed a documentary about a 98-year old Russian Mennonite immigrant s message of hope for children, Henry D. Remple: Finding Hope in Troubled Times; and a video drama on women s reproductive rights, Words of Choice. Her current production is a baseball history program for public television.

Crawfish and Freys (1996)

  • Duration: 29 minutes

    Directed by Linda Haskins

     

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  • Critic Reviews

    "The film's intimate, personal approach gives students a sense of having met and understood a great deal about its subjects and about what community means. I'll use it in my classes that address theories of socially constructed community and ethnic identities, and I recommend it for all such courses in cultural anthropology, sociology, American culture, and visual ethography."

    — Jane Gibson, Prof. of Anthropology, UNIV. OF KANSAS

     

     

    "The Film provides a remarkable depiction of how families come together to create identity and culture."

    — UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning 

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