Cajun music documentary "Roots of Fire" is now streaming
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Video still via "Roots of Fire"
"Roots of Fire," a Cajun music documentary, is now streaming on Apple TV+ and Prime Video.
Why it matters: The feature-length doc was created by New Orleans filmmakers and follows the latest generation of Cajun musicians who are transforming the sound for the modern age.
Between the lines: The timing is particularly poignant because the film features Christopher Stafford, a co-founder of Feufollet and a four-time Grammy-nominated musician.
- Stafford died May 2 in a car crash.
Zoom in: "Roots of Fire" premiered in 2022 and screened at festivals and in some theaters.
- This is the first time it's available for streaming across North America.
- It was directed and produced by Abby Berendt Lavoi and Jeremey Lavoi, and took about a decade to put together, the filmmakers tell Axios New Orleans.
Flashback: Jeremey grew up in Lake Charles, but he moved to California when he was 22.
- Homesick, he stumbled across a Louisiana music-focused issue of Oxford American, which came with a CD.
- On that CD was a song Stafford played, "Parlez-Nous à Boire."
- "I'd never heard Cajun music played this way," Jeremey says. "I just got fascinated with it, and I started listening to all these young Cajun bands."
One thing led to another, and the Lavois were spending more and more time getting to know the young musicians making Cajun music.
- "There was just something here that I fell in love with and couldn't quite articulate it at the time," Abby says, "but it's the people, the music, the food. Everything."
Go deeper: Watch the "Roots of Fire" trailer.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Jeremey moved to California when he was 22 (not 15).