Meaux embraces roots through documentaries

Kaplan native and filmmaker, Stephen Meaux, embraces his roots by preserving them through documentaries. His most recent series, entitled Just Comme Ça (just like that), focuses on traditional Cajun culture.
Stephen is the son of Keith and Helen Meaux, and is the youngest of three boys.
His enthusiasm for filmmaking began in high school, when he and a friend would make short spoofs or parodies on an old borrowed VHS camera.
After graduating from Kaplan High in 2006, Stephen attended UL to study Moving Image Arts in which he received a diploma in 2011.
He then worked for a television station in Lafayette before eventually becoming self employed.
Meaux now does freelance work, including video for websites and commercials. Although that is the main source of his income, Stephen’s true passion remains recording documentaries.
It wasn’t until after college that Stephen began to feel a call to depict his own culture on film. He decided to create a documentary seriate, to preserve his heritage for generations to come.
Meaux’s first series, Dans Ma Cuisine (in my kitchen), consists of eight videos featuring locals cooking a variety of dishes ranging from étouffée to gumbo, with a few surprises in between.
Just Comme Ça, his most recent series, was released in January and takes him to six different locations. From Forked Island to Grand Coteau, and various other places, the traditional ways of Cajun life are shown. Cleaning ducks; crawfishing; preserving figs; killing, cleaning and cooking turtle; fishing; and even a boucherie, are all documented.
It is an intimate look into the lifestyles of our surrounding communities. Videos range from two to 20 minutes.
Stephen chooses film subjects that grab his attention. “All these topics interest me. I find them unique and amazing. Hopefully, other people find it interesting and want to see it - even a hundred years from now.”
The short documentaries are filmed in such a way that they resemble a movie. Shot on a Canon 5d Mark 3, videos are accompanied by Cajun music and do not contain narration. Some have barely any dialogue at all. More emphasis is placed on the activity being performed than the people involved. All of his videos can be viewed in their entirety on his website: www.stephenmeaux.com
Up next, he is tackling the topic of music, and has interviewed several local bands from around the Lafayette area, such as Feufollet.
Each video, in this yet to be named series, will feature five minutes of biographical coverage on the band.
He already has his footage, and is now in the editing process. He is hoping to release this series by early summer of this year.
Commenting on establishing oneself in the film industry, Meaux states, “It is hard to get into this industry. You have to know people in order to do something relatively important on a film set. You can’t just apply to be a director of Transformers.”
Thankfully, that isn’t the type of prestige that he is after. Meaux chuckles before continuing, “You have to gradually make your way. And I don’t know if working on a big film set is something I really want to be doing.”
Since rediscovering his roots, Stephen is committed to remaining in Louisiana to film and even anticipates one day moving back home to Kaplan.