Since 2008, WLAE has produced 20 documentaries to preserve New Orleans cultural and to educate the public, says Ron Yager, WLAE’s GM: “We felt that we were the storytellers of New Orleans culture and if we didn’t do these types of stories, nobody else would.”
WLAE, an educational independent station in New Orleans, recently released its latest documentary focusing on the unique people and cultural institutions of New Orleans.
Irma Thomas: The Soul Queen of New Orleans – A Concert Documentary Film, an hour-long, music concert documentary highlighting the successful life of Irma Thomas, legendary New Orleans Soul Queen and Grammy winner, premiered on WLAE late last year and is now being offered to American Public Television.
Since 2008, WLAE has produced 20 documentaries intended to preserve New Orleans culture as well as educate the public, says Ron Yager, WLAE’s GM.
“We felt that we were the storytellers of New Orleans culture and if we didn’t do these types of stories, nobody else would,” Yager says.
Yager says the first documentary WLAE produced was in 2008, and it was a big hit.
When Fats Domino: Walkin’ Back to New Orleans aired on WLAE in November of 2008, “it was the most-watched public TV station at that time at that hour of any station in the country,” Yager says. “So we knew we had a little niche to tell these stories about unique New Orleans individuals not just in music, but in other genres as well.”
In addition to music documentaries about Thomas and Domino, WLAE produced, A Tribute to Toussaint, about another iconic figure in New Orleans music, Alan Toussaint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iUKVvuHJ2o
The station has also produced documentaries about award-winning chef and restaurant owner, Leah Chase, Leah Chase: The Queen of Creole Cuisine; the 300th anniversary of the Catholic Church in New Orleans, Catholics in the Crescent City The First 300 Years; and another about one of the oldest rivalries in prep football, Glory Days: The Catholic League of New Orleans.
Irma Thomas: The Soul Queen of New Orleans – A Concert Documentary Film features a candid interview with one of New Orleans’ most celebrated musical icons as well as never-before-seen footage of Thomas in concert with songwriter, producer and arranger Allen Toussaint.
Irma’s close friends and her local and national musical contemporaries tell the story of Irma’s humble beginnings in Ponchatoula, La.; her days living with her grandparents in Greensburg, La.; how she sang in a Baptist church choir as a young girl; and how she quickly rose to national stardom with her first of many Billboard R&B chart singles Don’t Mess with my Man in 1959.
“Irma is truly one of New Orleans most beloved musical legends, and our concert documentary will focus not only on her music, but her life story which is filled with hardship and triumph,” says Jim Dotson, vice-president of LAE Productions and WLAE.
Yager says the documentaries are “based in education because that is the mission of the station. If public TV didn’t do it, these stories would go untold and then if these people die off it is really hard to tell their story after they are gone. So we have always had the artist in the piece which has been really good for us and we have been fortunate to have that because no one can tell their own story like themselves.”
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