'Video caravan' to roll through Ville Platte Sunday

Ville Platte will be one of the stops of a “video caravan” Sunday that will focus on the area’s Creole heritage.
The event will begin with a traditional “high tea” at the historic Jean-Batiste Andre’ laFleur home of John laFleur, who is producing the video series.
LaFleur has invited “any French-speaking woman from our area interested in dressing up in her ‘Sunday best,’” to be involved in the video in his Washington home from 1 to 3 p.m.
LaFleur said the event is meant to highlight the diversity of the French speaking Creole culture. He said he is trying to “remarry our true history to contemporary cultural reality, while educating our people about our many, but nearly forgotten French Creole traditions and linguistic culture.”
Creole high teas are traditionally held to celebrate engagements, hold baby showers or just to socialize, laFleur said.
After the high tea, laFleur and the film crew will head to the McDonalds in Ville Platte at 4 p.m. to record video of a group of men who will discuss, in French, their thoughts on their heritage.
Then, the film crew will go to the historic Creole home site of J.D. Soileau near Ville Platte. There they will interview Soileau and record video of the home.
The crew intends to make other stops in Ville Platte, including to the grave of Marcellin Garand, who is considered the founder of Ville Platte, and Jules Ashlock, Creole French activist-lawyer, at the old Ville Platte cemetery, Le Vieux Cimetiere.
The film crew will also visit historic Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church and graveyard for additional documentation and commentary.
The video series laFleur is producing is being recorded by Tim Bridgewater Productions of Baton Rouge and will be shown on YouTube and other broadcast media.
The series will also include locations in Avoyelles, St. Landry, Natchitoches, Pointe-Coupee, and Orleans parishes. River Road Creole plantations will also be featured.