Chris Stelly’s DVD collection

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Tombstone

Rear Window

The Empire Strikes Back

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

Giant

Apocalypse Now

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

The Simpsons Movie

Seinfeld: Season 9

As a teenager, Chris Stelly worked for a local movie theater in 1988, first behind the concession stand, then as a projectionist where for five years he saw nearly the entire American cinema catalogue, from Good Morning, Vietnam to Tombstone.

“I just soaked it all up,” says Stelly, who today is director of Film & Television for the state’s Office of Entertainment Industry Development. Back then he never thought of a career in film, but it did provide a unique introduction to the world of movies, and is the reason he remains a film fanatic to this day.

Stelly will tell you Alfred Hitchcock had some weak projects, and Marlon Brando was unpredictable. But when naming a flawless canon, he settles on the work of Stanley Kubrick and James Dean. He even considered a post-graduate film program at UCLA, but says fate kept him in Baton Rouge working in the governor’s office.

“One of the most prophetic things my wife ever said to me was, ‘Don’t worry, Hollywood will come to you,’” Stelly says with a laugh.