The innocent, routine life of Alexander Napolean Ulysses Latour, a young Cajun boy raised on the Louisiana Bayou, is forever changed when his family allows an oil derrick to be erected in their area of the swamp.
Louisiana Story was Robert J. Flaherty's final and most controversial film - mired in suspicion about its praise for the minimal ecological effect of oil drilling on the environment, while being sponsored by the oil companies. Nominated for Best Story as well as for Best Picture, Louisiana Story won Best Documentary in the 1949 British Academy Awards and a spot on the New York Times' Ten Best Films list that same year. Virgil Thomson's compelling score won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Musical Composition.
Awards:
- 1949 Pulitzer Prize - Music Composition
- 1949 Academy Award Nominee - Best Writing
- 1949 British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Documentary
- 1949 Writer's Guild of America - WGA Award Nominee