Along the Mississippi: The Deep South (Part 1 - Full Documentary) | TRACKS

the Mississippi North America's largest river the Native Americans called its father of waters white conquerors followed it into the heart of the continent established cities and the American Way of life we take the Mississippi through this vast country from south to north and listen to its stories of people myths and music [Music] [Applause] [Music] a river reaches its destination this is where the Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico [Music] to get here it has made a journey of 2300 miles from the north to the south of the USA [Music] over the last 5,000 years its murky waters have pushed the river's mouth 50 miles out into the open sea the results is a vast Marsh [Music] scientists predict that soon the river will begin to look for a new path to the ocean and search will lead it here to the edge of Alea basin in southern Louisiana America's largest swampland area early morning is the best time out here according to david almond until the mid 20th century this wetland area was virtually cut off from the rest of the USA visitors here were rare where the population still known today as Cajuns continues to live in a kind of willing isolation usually around a lot of people most of the time during the day at my business but when you get out here it's just a wonderful peace that comes upon you and brings a lot of good feeling to the souls I've spent many of days as a young boy when this when this area of the lake dries up in the winter I mean in the summer late summer we would walk through these forests and build little houses little camps and come out here and run away from everybody to be all alone and we would hunt and fish out here as little boys David ailments ancestors migrated here generations ago from Germany they were given their last name by their neighbors the Acadians French settlers who were banished here by the English in the 18th century when the Acadians were exiled from Canada and they took the wrong river of thinking they were going up the Mississippi to New Orleans and ended up in the middle of his swamp that day they took a liking to it and remained here for 300 years and with that the culture remained as well it must have been a truly archaic world they found before them deep in the primordial enchanted Cypress forests but somewhere along the line the American lifestyle made its way here too and today the last of the swamp cabins stand abandoned [Music] French culture however is still alive and well in communities like bro bridge where the lifestyle is easygoing and laid-back but every Saturday morning at 7 the new town comes alive with activity when the locals meet for breakfast at Cafe de Zone me I'm 20 Melancon is a regular where they now join Iman join what you one key part for series you represent reverse leave you they join nosaka palnick what was it from see but see paternal grams to remain here keep called to do from xia na's Akiko programmatic washable this early morning celebration is called the zydeco breakfast and that seventy seven and one still takes part in Acadia the southern Louisiana is also known as dancing country age and skin color don't matter life in the swamp lands is known for being wild and sensual and so is the music [Music] zydeco is the musical heritage of the South's prions french-speaking people of mixed races zydeco's most important instruments are the accordion and the washboard known as it for tomorrow less say LeBlanc toilet let the good times roll you say the people here and the festivities continue over the whole weekend moving from one dance hall to another three or four hours at a time [Music] Puri time more jobs and those in so I like to draw on his own group is over here their job if you have no city to the prisoner table don't see John ed Paul cut cut Sanju part of our sermon before therefore demands you met [Music] Joseph to Monte via policy southernfry party Segura stage because after some years you see ma a timely motion timeless the moratorium on the morning if I own of a Derwin throughout the communities in southern Louisiana the muddy Mississippi waters have always fed the endless rice fields the motor boats are one of the few recent developments in working the fields and one person in particular played a large role in getting them here done Elmen is a crawfish farmer six months a year from December to the start of July his hired hands repeat the same task one empties the traps of their harvest while the other one baits them again for 12 hours each day rice is a natural industry in Louisiana and we take the rice fields and then turn them into crawfish ponds so it's a rotation crop one year is rice the following year would produce crawfish in these rice fields the crawfish have sets even all the straw as their food source takes about six weeks for them to grow to where we can use them in the restaurants from the time they're hatched 90% of the world's crawfish production comes from Louisiana a true American success story my grandfather started in in the 40s right after World War two producing crawfish my father was one of the first ones to bring it to restaurants in the in the 60s and that I was just a little boy and remember that very well then now I've taken over and really expanded it to a a larger much larger business in an average year Don harvests some 500 tons of crawfish generating roughly 1.3 million dollars in income Don is determined that his son Mark will take over the business one day but today another job awaits mark not all the crawfish land in the pot the small share ensures that the harvest can continue in the future mark puts the survivors out where the rice is still growing when they see an area in which they can dig that burrow they're gonna dig down in the soil and they'll dig brought up to five and six feet deep to continue with a moisture through the year as the temperatures in Louisiana get warmer they'll dig a little deeper to make sure they always have moisture when we reflect these fields then they come out from their burrows and they have their little ones and they just survive this crawfish can thank its lucky stars its cousins aren't so lucky however they end up in eateries like crawfish town USA one of southern Louisiana is largest see from Crestron see yeah crawfish our first boiled alive and then prepared in one of three ways mild or hot for the tourists and extra hot for the Acadians just the way they like with plenty of chili and Cajun pepper up to 1,000 guests can chow down on as many crawfish as they can eat in the shortest possible time the minimum order is four pounds the winner of the annual crawfish eating contest managed more than 19 pounds and 45 minutes that's 10 to 20 crawfish per amenity the crawfish is the emblem of Acadia still a small remaining vestige of far away France people in Breaux Bridge meet up on the weekend to play music [Music] these guns are completely voluntary players come play and leave [Music] [Music] this music is called Cajun and the violin as its main instrument they play their songs of joy and sorrow for hours on end America is never closer to its roots than in moments like this once again we head out into the quiet mystical world of the Atchafalaya swamp [Music] some lucky folks get to catch a glimpse out here of alligators hunting for fish just like the amateur anglers enjoying a weekend excursion in Louisiana's magical swamps it's Sunday evening in the land of the Acadians when the locals wrap up their weekend of dancing at Angelus whiskey River Landing and naturally Antoine is there to me [Music] we continue on northwards only a little upriver but to a completely different world New Orleans they call the city the Big Easy for many people it's still the USA's most beautiful city the infamous Bourbon Street is a noisy endless party mile a thoroughfare of bright lights and cheap thrills but only a couple of blocks away one can still feel the old charm and magic and the magic has indeed returned since Hurricane Katrina brought New Orleans to the brink of complete destruction in late August 2005 like so many others Darryl Reeves lost almost everything he owned at the time the storm destroyed his workshop and what he could salvage was buried under almost 10 feet of water but New Orleans needs people like Darryl Reeves people whose blacksmith artistry has given the city its unmistakable face this particular fan piece is oh they're only as I seen this was 1830 when he was drawing up for a house on Dauphine Street now you might see this in a couple buildings around in the quarters this little fitting yours from the restoration work at old Chalmette Cemetery that gate was fabricated in 1872 [Music] I connect with a lot of craftsmen going back hundreds of years I mean this city grew from just my favorite nationality Ariana's blow all them from the blacksmith was a pretty important part of the city and in all those definition ality everybody else's had their own style they they all know the fact that New Orleans survived the Katrina catastrophe seems almost like America but the French Quarter suffered its share of damage too and repairing this damage has provided Darryl with his own new start my thing is when I do restoration work and I'm taking this stuff apart I'm learning at all it can't beat there many of Darryl's co-workers left the city in Katrina's wake they took their knowledge and skills from New Orleans to build a new life elsewhere we have a lot of restoration work in this city but the restoration work in the city by itself won't be in a bill but I do a lot of furniture design a lot of different type of metal pieces all of knowledge I get from doing the restoration work I put it in my pieces Daryl's workshop is part of a long-standing tradition and upholds a pride in handicrafts and uncompromising sense of beauty after the shock of Katrina Darryl Reeves and his colleagues are making New Orleans a lively vibrant city once again and this vitality is nowhere more evident than in full bore to me a neighborhood largely populated by skilled laborers and located just behind the very Caray the city's tourism center 200 years ago this area was home to the majority of the city's first free people of color most of whom were illegitimate children of white immigrants and their black lovers they were joined by freed slaves and new arrivals tremie has remained the New Orleans of the working class above all of afro-americans in their culture which continued even today to make New Orleans so unit [Music] child Simbu up in 20 and has worked for the years post offices entire working life this is one of my storage bins charns loved art class even as a child as a young US soldier he was stationed near Paris an experience that changed his life this is the location of my smaller paintings he was fascinated by the museum's especially the Louvre and it's Impressionists since then he has dedicated almost every free moment to painting I paint him I put him under the beam I store them here I have not sold a painting I have now three hundred paintings I have no need to sell I collect my own work you collect painting I collect my work the longer I keep them the more valuable they become the day I pass away there will be a beaten path to my door or you two are okay [Music] for decades charts Sims has rejected commercial considerations regarding his paintings instead he wants to chronicle the life of his city and paintings as a humorous observer of its day-to-day events he reports on the experiences of his people in the search for new identity as african-americans he says he hopes to carry his people's traditions into the museums of the world and so now he has decided to make his entire collection of works oh this is a parade this is the van that preceded the parade as you can see here and when the van got to me the young man is down here did what they call a Buddha MA and I'm shocked because the young latest me was just overexposed in my view and I was told by someone the dance that they were doing is an African dance that when a young lady cross over into womanhood they have this procession where she has to show her capabilities to the male of the tribe and this is the dance that they perpetuate that they do so then I felt more comfortable as we're exchanging goodbyes charged Sims tells us of his dream to have an exhibition in Paris the city in which his artistic dreams first came true tremie is famous above all as the birthplace and the stronghold of a type of music that swept the world a century ago [Music] the tradition of New Orleans jazz is alive and well thanks to musicians like Kermit Ruffins Louie Armstrong is his role model he may be you in the heartland of America and New Orleans one of the best cities in the world and you just happen to grow up right here I mean it's all about chance you never know what's gonna be born right so I mean as a kid it's the best feeling because you come to growing to know who you are and where you're from it what the world is about in its blessing the grow up in New Orleans Kermit was once a street musician living from the tips he received from tourists today he plays throughout the entire world fell in love with the tremie when I realized all the musicians that were surrounded around their neighborhood and live didn't even I just totally fell in love because I was lucky enough to sit at the bar and talk to those guys all the time I made my living and found myself in a trimming I realized that I was gonna be playing jazz music for the rest of my life [Applause] [Music] [Applause] whenever he's home in New Orleans Kermit plays Thursdays at Vaughan's lounge where his career began [Music] Katrina scattered the players from the New Orleans music scene to the four winds only few like Kermit's returned if New Orleans is to win back its soul than it needs jazz it's the lifeblood of the Big Easy on the Mississippi we leave the city heading northwards up the river [Music] the proud wild currents was forced into dice over a hundred years ago and they've grown each [Music] this cost the former masters of the Mississippi to lose the unspoiled view of their [Music] antibellum they are called these pre Civil War mansions from the heyday of the Old South [Music] the plantation houses spore once lined up on the banks of the Mississippi like pearls on the strength San Francisco is by far the most impressive of these homes Edmund McMillen loved traveling through Europe he brought Louise is beautiful young wife with him from Bavaria for her he invested his entire fortune in a gothic palace intended to equal those of the old world [Music] chroniclers report that on formal nights the couple would invite guests for a soiree where the mansion's windows and doors were thrown open for the view of the Mississippi [Music] today the Evergreen plantation is one of the few places where you can sense what being the wealthy plantation owner was all about reminders of a dark chapter in America's history slave quarters in a country that promises its citizens freedom and equality the inventory of the owners possessions lists 54 slaves who lived here in 1835 the blacksmith named West cost one thousand five hundred dollars while a crippled cotton picker Chloe is listed at $300 these people and millions of others were regarded as simple commodities with no rights the Butler Greenwood plantation has been in the family for more than 200 years and is now in its seventh generation [Music] and butlers ancestors were Puritans from England they were well-off it was unseemly to make a show of wealth this was the elites the aristocracy of the south the first generation was the first doctor in the area the second generation was on the first Louisiana Supreme Court as the chief justice for 25 years they were planters at the same time they had a very cultured lifestyle they had books they had music they actually talked to each other they would sit on the porch and in the evening cool and have conversations which sometimes people have forgotten how to do now and they were well educated they were well-traveled they lived right on the Mississippi River so they could get around the world with ease and they did they travelled all over Europe and purchased things for the houses they knew people all over the world and Butler is an author she has written 15 books up to now about the Old South its way of life and its cuisine in recording the past and Butler has become part of a world lost in the mists of time Butler Greenwood is no longer only her home but also a museum for the slave quarters now serve as guest houses this is not a lifestyle for everybody it's quiet it's in the country you know you freeze in the wintertime because you never quite get it warm but it's certainly a wonderful place to live it's struggle to support an old place like this you know it's a bottomless pit at times it's a real burden but you would hate to be the one to let it go out of the family you you have a responsibility to the other generations who went before who made it such a beautiful place but you'd hate to be the one to drop the ball most of the old south large homes have disappeared either destroyed in the Civil War or left to deteriorate in its aftermath [Music] the world of Gone with the Wind is gone indeed just like Scarlett O'Hara's Tara it is like some distant dream the remnants of which we can still see in the ruins of Windsor once America's most majestic home [Music] Angola is located on one of the rivers peninsulas at first glance this seems like any other arts and crafts flea market held on four Sundays in October the only items on sale here mostly furniture and home accessories are produced by the residents of this place it all seems very relaxed [Music] this mobile barbecue smoker and the truck design is only a prototype according to its designer a whole pig will fit inside [Music] Matthew Morgan used to be a popular musician and radio DJ in Louisiana for the last 13 years Matthew has lived in Angola one of the USA's largest state assets most of the prison's 5110 mates are serving a life sentences including Matthew his son Matthew jr. is allowed to visit him regularly I'm very proud of him he's done really well and he's not in any trouble thank God I've watched him grow up in a business [ __ ] since he was 2 years old when Matthew was about four no five or so he was playing t-ball and he didn't understand about about about me being in prison and about how it worked and he would say yo he would say that can uh can you come to my game for Matthew and his fellow inmates these for Sunday's are the high point of the year more than 10,000 visitors come to the prison on the banks of the Mississippi then and the difference between them and the inmates is scarcely a noticeable but the easygoing atmosphere here is misleading as the security measures are watertight [Music] like many of the inmates today Matthew can also sell what he has made behind bars to keep around 70% of the earnings the music is the hobby just the fun this is the money this is how I earn my living here I'm able to give my son money for his birthday money for Christmas I'm able to help with his school of supplies and his clothes to a certain degree because they're very expensive but I do what I can I make thousands of dollars now I'm not bragging I'm just saying God's been good to me I'm blessed I make real good art I mean I make real good money doing this art and I love it man I can paint stuff like this and I get lost into it the actual main attraction is the Angola [Music] introduced 45 years ago as a welcome change in the daily routine of the inmates and prison employees the rodeo today is a professional managed show that proceeds are used to finance improvements in the prison conditions and all those inmates even built their own staging to house Christopher's gonna mend fences long car are old hands at the will do that these two lifers were never caught I'm out here for the money mainly the adrenaline rush you don't really know what ride you're gonna get you know the seed will come out like a day before then it'll tell you what your eyes you're fixing again no you just sign up and come on out train no train no more - no prayers cause makes it bedroom makes it dangerous makes it fun broken bones broken legs broke ribs broke necks missing ears got a pretty reasonable medical staff attends to us pretty good [Applause] the wildest show on the south is the motto of the end goal [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] he did it the winner of each category can anticipate prize money of up to $500 [Applause] [Music] Vernon Francis is 34 years old he was imprisoned at the age of 16 for a second-degree murder mother really don't like me messing with it you know because when I first told her first thing she said was oh love my baby could get hurt but she understand why I do it and she wished me the best but I see did not did not go deep in here one time even a one time but huh I really wouldn't vote my mom to come see me because all she gonna do is holler the whole washy out there I know I'm risking myself is dangerous because anything can happen but the excitement and Dorrit days are from a crowd of people to me it's just a lot of fun the prison's directors see the rodeo as an opportunity for the prisoners to take pride in something they do while helping themselves the rodeos critics assert that the kick for the audience is derived from the fact that the contestants have little left to lose the longer of the rodeo goes on the more Daryl's events become [Music] this one is called pending the winner is the last contestant to a man standing in a booth while the bully attacks [Applause] the high point for many of those on hand is convict poker thankfully it all wraps up the Sunday with no serious injuries [Applause] as we're leaving the warden of Angola prison tells us who set the load you of his homes both the visitors and the inmates understand that a life behind bars also has meaning and purpose the [Music] Mighty River takes us deeper into the heartland of America two news stories of fates and destinies [Music] the Mississippi seems like a lonely traveler winding its way behind the dikes almost as if abandoned by the people [Music] five a.m. sunrise a short night comes to an end for 161 men and women they come from all over the country a boat landing near the city of Natchez is there a meeting point Melissa Morrison gives final instructions her friend Keith Benoit held the first fat Water kayak challenge eight years ago this kayak race is prepared like a commander after only two hours sleep to clarify what he learned on five years as a member of an elite Marines unit every year Keith and Melissa worked towards this day and once again fat water is a major sporting event getting the last kayak prepared takes longer than planned but then everything is ready the start signal is given for the marathon on the Mississippi this is a real challenge even for experienced kayakers they're looking at a 42 mile journey downstream the field disperses quickly and the pros take the lead Keith and Melissa are among the frontrunners and they're determined to set a personal record [Music] fifty-five minutes nine point nine miles nine point nine miles in we may break for hours if we don't hit a headwind [Music] perfect absolutely perfect we've got a tailwind ideal conditions [Music] most of the contestants take an easier in peace but all of them expect ideal conditions from the organizers this is the third year the United States Coast Guard has closed down the river to commercial traffic you'll see a lot of barges out here but they're stopped they're not allowed to pass through the river while we're out here so now when we have our race this is the third year they've given us what they call a marine safety zone they shut down traffic from the bridges at Natchez to Grand Gulf and it's really made a difference in our turnout more people are coming because they're not afraid anymore they were afraid of the barge traffic in the huge lakes but as you can see from my excellent seamanship lakes are no problem for us [Music] far ahead of the pack the winners pros and Olympic competitors from California reached the finish line of notches the oldest city on the Mississippi River Keith and Melissa give their all to beat the four hour mark this year they have paddled this course regularly once a month and it takes two years to find the ideal lion in the current [Music] four hours and two minutes they just missed it what a rush I guess Peter that's what it's just a rush it's a rush you know it's that constant adrenaline I have to take a break I need to run up that way Melissa wants to take a break in an old Naches soon this was once a popular joint with sailors were few men and masters of the Mississippi today Keith and Melissa celebrate their race completely exhausted they still look forward to a new attempt at breaking the four hour mark next year maybe then even kayakers from the old world will be on them we travel on further upstream where the home of blues music awaits us [Music] [Music]

Channel: TRACKS

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Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, along the mississippi documentary, angola state prison, robert johnson, cotton pickers louisiana, plantation owners louisiana, new orleans documentary, blues music documentary, all aboard the canal trip bbc documentary 2015, all aboard the canal boat, american history documentaries full length, american history documentary history channel, angola state prison rodeo, new orleans jazz documentary, the land of the shacks

Id: gt9ulkzSLGY

Length: 43min 18sec (2598 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 17 2018