After its highly successful run of 25 film festivals—winning 11 awards including Documentary of the Year from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities—feature-length documentary Roots of Fire has found a home with distributor, First Run Features, and is set for a streaming and physical release on May 7th. Exploring the cultural legacy of Cajun music and the artists currently preserving the rich tradition for future generations, Roots of Fire features electrifying performances from the Pine Leaf Boys, Feufollet, Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les Rôdailleurs, Bonsoir Catin, and more.
Filmmakers Abby Berendt Lavoi and Jeremey Lavoi initially started their Roots of Fire project to capture amazing stories in the world of South Louisiana roots music with the goal of sharing those stories in a style that would appeal to audiences outside of Louisiana—hopefully growing the fan bases of both Cajun and Zydeco music in the process. The resulting film achieves those goals, and then some. A beautifully shot, music-filled ride through South Louisiana culture, Roots of Fire focuses on what’s at stake for future generations while presenting energetic, down-home Cajun music to the world at large.
“Bringing Roots of Fire to audiences nationwide is a moment we (and many fans of the musicians in our film) have been eagerly awaiting for a long time,” said the filmmakers in a joint statement. “Since we first started filming, we've watched this scene grow and evolve, and now, to see it on streaming platforms across the US and Canada is beyond exciting. This release isn't just about celebrating Louisiana's cajun music; it's about sharing the stories, sounds and community that connect us all.”
On May 7th, right on the heels of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival where many of the artists featured in the film will be performing, Roots of Fire will be available to purchase on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and more. Pre-order the film now at this link. For more information, please visit rootsoffire.com.
More About Roots of Fire’s Filmmakers:
Director-Producer Abby Berendt Lavoi: Abby Berendt Lavoi is an award winning Director and Writer whose work has screened at over 30 film festivals, with TV credits that include MTV, TVLand/Nick@Nite and CurrentTV. She was recently Showrunner of the 12 episode streaming series, My Amazing Cheap Date: New Orleans. Her feature, Roots of Fire, won Documentary of Year from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. She is in development on its sequel, Roots of Fire 2, and is directing and editing its spinoff series Dry Bones. Her screenwriting work has been recognized at Austin Film Festival, CineStory, and Stowe Story Labs. In 2021, she won the Women in Film and Television’s ‘Resilient Woman’ Award. She won Best Editor at Mockfest for the film Rolled, and Best Film at the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Festival. Her series It’s a Rough Life was a finalist for the NYTVF History Channel Unscripted Development Pipeline. She is a founder and partner at Lavoi Creative, creating work for Pandora, Google, Netflix, Autodesk, Vox, COMPLEX, & many more.
Director-Producer Jeremey Lavoi: Jeremey Lavoi is an award-winning Director, Writer, and Cinematographer. He directed the multi-winning feature documentary Roots of Fire, which earned the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Documentary of the Year Award for 2023. He was the Showrunner of My Amazing Cheap Date: New Orleans for Hearst/ Very Local. He was on the Emmy Award winning team at CurrentTV in 2007 where he directed dozens of short documentaries on various topics including Skating the Aftermath, about New Orleans skateboarders in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He was a Producer/ Editor on the mockumentary film Rolled, which received accolades at Mockfest in 2011. He was Director of Photography on Jennifer Newsom’s documentary The Great American Lie. In 2012 his team won Best Film at the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Festival. His web series It’s a Rough Life was a finalist for the 2014 NYTVF History Unscripted Development Pipeline. His additional television credits include Bravo, History Channel, Science Channel, MTV2, CNBC, Discovery Health, and TechTV/ G4. At Lavoi Creative he has produced content for Google, Netflix, Pandora, Vox, Discovery, COMPLEX, and others.
Producer-Sound Stephen Thorpe: Stephen Thorpe is a Bay Area based audio engineer. In 2012 he founded Din Pan Alley, an audio services company with a sound design studio in uptown Oakland. He does field and post-production sound for networks including ABC, CNN, NatGeo, Netflix, and ESPN, records remotely for NPR, and travels with reality-documentary shows.
