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The 20th anniversary screening of “Dirty Rice” is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Monday at a Red Carpet community celebration of the film made in the heart of Cajun country and steeped in Cajun culture, according to an announcement from Cinema on the Bayou Film Society and Acadiana Center for the Arts.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m, and the film screens at 7:30 p.m, followed by a reception with hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.
Tickets are $15 (same price as in 1997) and can be purchased at Acadiana Center for the Arts, 101 W. Vermilion, Lafayette, LA 70501, by calling AcA at 337-233-7060, or online at acadianacenterforthearts.org/dirty-rice-20th-anniversary-screening.
Twenty years ago, on Dec. 4, 1997, “Dirty Rice” had its world premiere in Lafayette at the United Artist Theatre on Kaliste Saloom before an audience of over 1,200 people. The debut narrative feature film by acclaimed Cajun filmmaker Pat Mire, filmed in and around Eunice, was released on United Artist screens throughout the state. To this day, “Dirty Rice” holds the record for the longest-running film to play in a Lafayette movie theatre — it was booked for a two-week engagement and was held over for five months.
An official selection at the 42nd London Film Festival, “Dirty Rice” captures the raw essence of the rural Cajun community in South Louisiana in a tale of a man rediscovering his roots and reclaiming his heritage. As renowned movie critic Neil Norman of the London Evening Standard put it, “While ‘The Big Easy,’ ‘No Mercy’ and most recently, ‘Eve’s Bayou,’ have flirted with the Cajun world, this is the real deal, 100 percent proof.”
The 20th anniversary screening is a fundraiser for Cinema on the Bayou Film Society, a Section 501(c)(3) non-profit which presents the 13th Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival on Jan. 24-31.