Spend It All

Sometimes it seems as if the American society is a uniform whole, but of course this is far from the truth. For example, in the southern state of Louisiana, a group of people is living who are called Cajuns. In the film that Les Blank made about this distinct community in 1970, they appear as a genial and motley lot. The Cajuns are distant descendants of the first French colonists who were driven from Canada by the British and who settled in the south of the United States in the course of time. Since the 17th century, they lived there for two centuries, more or less isolated from the rest of America, along with escaped slaves, pirates, Spaniards and French. The old Cajuns spoke better French than English, loved making music and merrymaking and had a passion for horse races. It is doubtful whether they still form such a close-knit community, because in 1970 one of the interviewees in the film was worried about the youngsters, who went to school and read books. Things used to be very different. Young people worked on the land or earned their daily bread with fishing. Next, they spent their money on horse races or parties. Those were the days. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)