By: Brittany Racca
Iberia Parish has been featured in various movies and television shows over the years. We've compiled a list for you to visit a few famous locations you might've seen on the big (or small) screen for you to add to your next binge session!
1) True Blood (2008) – TV series
Created By: Alan Ball
Starring: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Rutina Wesley, Joe Manganiello
Summary: Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse encounters a strange new supernatural world when she meets the mysterious Bill, a southern Louisiana gentleman and vampire.
Locations: Some of the original opening montage was filmed at Spanish Lake in New Iberia and a front porch on E. St. Peters St.
2) All the King’s Men (2006)
Director: Steven Zaillian
Starring: Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins
Summary: An American political drama film based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name by Robert Penn Warren. The film is about the life of Willie Stark, a fictional character resembling Louisiana governor Huey Long, in office 1928 through 1932. He was elected as a US Senator and assassinated in 1935.
Locations: It was partially filmed at the Albania Plantation in Jeanerette (not open to the public).
3) In the Electric Mist (2009)
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard and Kelly Macdonald
Summary: Crime drama mystery set in post-Katrina New Orleans. A Louisiana detective tries to link the murder of a local prostitute to a New Orleans mobster who is co-producing a Civil War film. He embarks on a surreal investigation while looking for a serial killer.
Locations:
- Lake Fausse Pointe State Park
- Bridge Street and downtown New Iberia
- Anderson Street (Shotgun row houses, across the street from Anderson Middle School, near 1059 Anderson St.)
- Iberia Parish Courthouse (300 Iberia St., New Iberia); Sheriff’s Office
- Holiday Inn (now Ramada Conference Center), Hwy. 14
- Delcambre (North Pier Marina area)
- New Iberia City Hall's first floor was used earlier in the film as the Police Chief’s office and later as Dave Robicheaux’s office
- Theriot’s Deli (330 Julia St., New Iberia)
- Acadian Ball Park (401 N. Landry Dr., New Iberia)
- Albania Plantation in Jeanerette
- Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Parish Hall (303 W. Main St., New Iberia)
- Teche Motel Cottage #4
- South Louisiana Community College, Technical Campus (1314 Hangar Dr., New Iberia)
4) Christmas in Louisiana (2019)
Director: Emily Moss Wilson
Starring: Jana Kramer, Percy Daggs III, Moira Kelly, Dee Wallace, Barry Bostwick
Summary: The Winter Family is Christmas royalty in New Iberia, Louisiana, and Sarah Winter (Kramer), a successful lawyer and former Miss Christmas, is no exception. When she returns home to celebrate the anniversary of the town’s Sugarcane Christmas Festival with her mother (Kelly) and her grandparents (Wallace and Bostwick), she rediscovers the magic of the season--and a little romance-- with her former Mister Christmas, Luke (Daggs).
Locations:
We compiled the various locations used in the film into a blog, that you can read here.
5) A Taste of Louisiana with Chef John Folse & Co. (1990 TV Series)
Summary: Chef John Folse explores the foods of Louisiana.
Locations:
- “Shadows-on-the-Teche Plantation" Episode
- “Sugar Cane Festival” Episode features sugar cane fields in New Iberia
- “Jefferson Island and New Iberia” episode features the Joseph Jefferson Mansion at Jefferson Island Rip Van Winkle Gardens.
- “Jeanerette and Abbeville” episode features sugar cane fields and harvesting as well as LeJeune’s Bakery and the Jeanerette Museum in Jeanerette.
6) The Buccaneer (1958)
Director: Anthony Quinn
Starring: Yul Brynner, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens and Henry Hull
Summary: During the war of 1812, Louisiana buccaneer Jean Lafitte assists the Americans in defending New Orleans against the attacking British war fleet.
Locations: Jean Lafitte's adventure was filmed partially at the Shadows-on-the-Teche in New Iberia.
7) Return to Boggy Creek (1977)
Director: Tom Moore
Starring: Dawn Wells, Dana Plato and David Sobiesk
Summary: Return to Boggy Creek is a 1977 adventure/horror film. Dawn Wells of Gilligan's Island portrays the mother of three children who become lost in a swamp during a hurricane until a creature comes to their rescue.
Locations: Lake Dauterive/Lake Fausse Pointe in Loreauville.
8) White Rose (1923)
Director: D. W. Griffith
Starring: Mae Marsh, Carol Dempster and Ivor Novello
Summary: A wealthy young Southern aristocrat, Joseph, graduates from a seminary and, before he takes charge of his assigned parish, decides to go out and see what "the real world" is all about. He winds up in New Orleans and finds himself attracted to a poor, unsophisticated orphan girl, Bessie. One thing leads to another, and before long Bessie finds that she is pregnant with Joseph's child.
Locations: This movie was filmed at Shadows-on-the-Teche with additional scenes filmed on Bayou Teche and in Franklin, New Iberia and St. Martinville.
9) Louisiana Story (1948)
Director: Robert Flaherty
Starring: Joseph Boudreaux, Lionel Le Blanc, E. Bienvenu, Frank Hardy and Oscar J Yarborough
Summary: Louisiana Story (1948) is a 78-minute black-and-white American film. Although the events and characters depicted are fictional and the film was commissioned by the Standard Oil Company to promote its drilling ventures in the Louisiana bayous, it is often misidentified as a documentary film, when in fact, it is a docufiction.
Locations: Flaherty is considered the father of documentary film and shot the movie in Iberia Parish near Avery Island (Bayou Petite Anse). Bayou Petite Anse runs through Jungle Gardens.
10) Monsterwolf (2010)
Director: Todor Chapkanov
Starring: Leonor Varela, Robert Picardo and Marc Macaulay
Summary: A group of people who represent an oil company find new ground to drill for oil but then accidentally unleash a wolf-like creature. The creature wrecks havoc in the town and can only be stopped by the last surviving native American.
Locations: Fantasy/horror TV movie shot in Lafayette and New Iberia. There was a scene shot at the Dock of the Bay nightclub (503 Hwy. 90, New Iberia).
11) Surviving Progress (2011)
Director: Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks
Starring: Ronald Wright, Mark Levine, Robert Wright and Marina Silva
Summary: Documentary showing how too much progress in past civilizations was disastrous.
Locations: Partially filmed in New Iberia at the Cognitive Evolution Group Research Center Chimp Lab.
Sources:
- IMDB New Iberia Filmings Locations
- Hollywood on the Bayou
- Wikipedia and IMDB for summaries and cast information: True Blood, All the King's Men, In the Electric Mist, The Buccaneer, Return to Boggy Creek, White Rose, Louisiana Story.
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