Strangers in the night – Manship to screen acclaimed Big Easy doc

They always wanted to go to McDonalds.

There are, of course, much better eateries in the Big Easy, says filmmaker Bill Ross, and this overt gastronomic advice was his only strong direction to a trio of young New Orleanians who otherwise helped steer the action with their coming-of-age, city-spanning travels in Ross’ latest documentary, Tchoupitoulas.

The critically acclaimed film revels in the unique nightlife and colorful characters of New Orleans and makes its Baton Rouge debut at Manship Theatre on Jan. 12.

“It’s fun to show the film anywhere, but especially in parts of Louisiana like Baton Rouge where people can really identify with the city,” Ross says.

The young director and his brother Turner grew up in Ohio, but spent summers and vacations in New Orleans—“It was our second home,” Ross says—where their father resides still. Their experience as youthful adventure seekers peeking curiously in on a very adult world fueled their desire to produce a documentary that captured that mysterious thrill for audiences.

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. After the success of their first film—the Ohio-set documentary 45265 won the Documentary Jury Prize at Austin’s South By Southwest festival—the Ross brothers spent nine months combing the French Quarter, the Bywater and other colorful neighborhoods for real scenes that celebrated the unique joie de vivre of the city and its people.

Joining the party was nearly impossible to resist.

“It was trying on the liver,” Ross says of the extended shoot. “Of course, as adults we were able to get into places we couldn’t as kids, so night after night we got a deeper understanding of a place that is really deep. You can probably say that about most places, if you just know how to look and experience everything that is going on.”

Those nine months were used building a landscape for the film, Ross says. Finding the right children to navigate through that environment was a stroke of good luck.

“It was so crazy how it worked out,” Ross says. “They literally walked right past us, and we listened to them talk for a while and asked if they wanted to be in a movie. We went to their parents’ house, and they loved the idea—partly because it was free babysitting, I think. It got the boys out of the house, so we were responsible for them for the night.”

With a deceptively simple, hands-off approach, the Ross brothers followed a talkative and infinitely inquisitive young boy named William and his two older siblings as they took their first nighttime ferry ride to Algiers and tagged along for a wild roam through the Quarter. Ross likens it to watching the titular puppet visit Pleasure Island in Disney’s Pinocchio.

As the boys confront the iconic traits of their home city, the documentary fans out into the jazz, the blues, the booze and the burlesque of New Orleans and creates an evocative and uncompromising time capsule of the city.

When the cameras go where the boys cannot, audiences are reminded of the precious bubble in which they still live, even if it is one borne of the harsh realities of their own economically depressed community. William will face many challenges in the years ahead, but in Tchoupitoulas, it is all about tonight, and his destination has little to do with the glory of his wide-eyed journey.

Documenting this memorable moment, in this specific world, Tchoupitoulas is an ace of spades, a one-of-a-kind portrait of a boy who stands far from the threshold of adulthood, but who, just like the rest of us, wants to fully understand all that it means to grow up.

“We wanted the film to speak to how we felt about the city as kids, and the mystery of New Orleans,” Ross says. “It’s a strange and exotic place filled with wonderment and ghosts.” rossbros.net