Blue Dog Nights

Written by Nikki Buskey, Staff Writer for the Houma Courier

HOUMA — A documentary filmmaker seeking to catalogue the imperiled Cajun culture using local voices is asking for your vote in a contest that could get her dream project rolling full speed.

American Express is giving up to $1.5 million to card members who receive the most online votes for projects they believe will make a positive impact on the world. Stephanie Kovac, a Dallas-based filmmaker with 20 years of broadcast experience, said her dream is to film a documentary that highlights wetlands loss and the Cajun culture threatened as a result.

Though she was born in Alabama, her roots run deep in Louisiana, with both her father and mother hailing from the state.

She’s already steadily at work on her project despite the lack of a steady stream of money. The filmmaker is coming to Houma next week to film an alligator hunt, and she just finished a 15-minute trailer for her documentary that details the perils through the eyes of author and wetland-tour-boat captain Wendy Billiot, Kerry St. Pé, director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program and Dean Blanchard, owner of Grand Isle Seafood.

Kovac first became interested in the project in 2004, while filming an episode of the television series “Forensic Files” in Venice. There, she said, residents begged her to come back and tell the “real story” of coastal Louisiana and its drastic land-loss problems.

“When I got home, I started researching, and I couldn’t believe it. I’d never heard of the problems Louisiana was suffering on a massive scale,” Kovac said.

She decided to begin a documentary on the subject, but being naïve, she said she initially sought money from oil companies to begin her project.

“I’ve always thought that man has a responsibility to fix what it has destroyed,” she said. “But I got nowhere” other than a few polite letters from companies that said they already invest in restoration campaigns.

Then, she said, hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit back to back, and she knew that any money that could have gone to her documentary was going to be funneled into relief efforts. She tried to forget about it.

“But any time I’d try to shelf the project and let go, I’d get a call from someone in south Louisiana asking me how it was coming, or what I needed, be it a plane or a boat,” Kovac said.

Locals’ passion to get their own story out convinced Kovac to pick up the project again last year and refocus it from the environment to the people who were so passionate about having their voices heard.

Kovac last filmed in Louisiana in May, talking with St. Pé about the possibilities of rebuilding land in Louisiana by shipping sediment through pipelines to starved marshes, and recording the devastatingly short spring shrimp season.

She said she was struck by the imperiled industry and the number of trawlers for sale in Leeville. “Even Dean Blanchard, who owns Grand Isle Seafood down there, said this is the first year he’s seen a grown man cry,” Kovac said. “After all was said and done, when they loaded off their shrimp, some of those guys were getting cut checks for 49 cents.”

Kovac said she thinks then end result could be devastating to the Cajun culture and way of life. “What would happen if they’re forced to abandon the coast? How can they survive anywhere else when they’ve been living off the land like this for so long?” Kovac said. “The Cajuns are some of the hardest working people in America, and they’ve never been dependent on the government,” she added. “We’ve destroyed the coast, and now we have an obligation to fix it, especially for the lives and livelihood of a people who’ve contributed so much to us.”

Voting for the American Express project ends Sept. 1. As of Monday evening, Kovac’s documentary ranked 53rd out of 700 projects.

To vote for Kovac’s project, visit www.membersproject.com and register as a guest.

You can find Kovac’s project by clicking on the Arts and Culture category, and then by selecting Cultural Preservation. There you’ll find Kovac’s proposal, Reclaiming the Cajun Coast.