Among Brothers: Politics in New Orleans (1987)

Producer, director and writer of a documentary about an election for mayor of New Orleans between two African-American candidates.  Two bitter rivals, Councilman Sidney Barthelemy and State Senator William Jefferson, fight to succeed the city’s first black mayor, Dutch Morial.  The film is also a time capsule of a pre-Katrina New Orleans, including scenes of campaigning and rallies in now partially vanished neighborhoods like the lower 9th Ward.  Street parades, Mardi Gras, elections, and racial conflict, it’s all part of the story.

The idea for the film started right after finishing HANDS THAT PICKED COTTON, wanting to figure out a film closer to home in New Orleans. I also was a political pollster at the time and in 1985, I joined the mayoral campaign of then State Senator William Jefferson with my polling partner Doug Rose. With access to Jeff’s campaign, it seemed a natural for a second film. I also ended up also doing almost nightly on air election campaign analysis for WVUE-TV (and “borrowed” their loaner new Sony BetaCam model for the duration of our production).

National PBS broadcast, September 1987.

Produced & Directed by Paul Stekler Cinematography by Richard Dallett

Edited by Alan Bell Sound by Jim Gilmore & Robert Nelson Narrated by John O’Neal

Funding from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Louisiana Division of the Arts