In the Land of What Now Signing

Howdy y’all.

I thought I’d drop in to let everybody know that there will be a signing of the book In the Land of What Now this Saturday at the Metairie Barnes and Noble this Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. This is the book that served as the blueprint for the movie Flood Streets, which I wrote about here at NOLAFemmes a little while back.

This event is the first Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation book fair and 20% of the proceeds will go to to LCEF, which awards grant money to local artists like Helen Krieger, the author of In the Land of What Now and producer of Flood Streets.

If you want to check out the stories that started Helen and her husband Joseph’s journey toward making a movie, this is a wonderful opportunity.

 

Flood Streets – a local film

Last Thursday, I attended a private screening of a local indie feature, Flood Streets, hosted by NOVAC at Vintage Uptown. It was a gorgeous space and the entire event was wonderful.

I think everybody should know about this film, and the filmmakers behind it. The script was co-written by Helen Krieger and her husband Joseph Meissner based on a group of short stories Helen wrote about the often humorous situations New Orleanians found themselves in after Katrina. Together, Helen and Joseph created a production company, The Hatchery Media, and threw themselves into every aspect of filmmaking, taking on the producing and directing roles in addition to writing. Joseph plays one of the main characters as well. They recruited a dedicated crew (including co-producers Michelle Benoit and Glen Pitre) and a talented cast including Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond and Harry Shearer. You’ll find, as I did, a lot of familiar faces from the music community – Clint Maedgen from The New Orleans Bingo! Show and Meschiya Lake, just to name two.

Among its other projects, The Hatchery Media has also released a book of Helen’s stories that inspired the film, In the Land of What Now, which were sold at the event by Faulkner House Books. You can keep an eye on the progress of Flood Streets by signing up for the newsletter here.

An image from the film

The cover of "In the Land of What Next"