Photo by Anton Corbijn
Bayou Maharajah explores the life and music of New Orleans piano legend James Booker, the man Dr. John described as “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.”
Winner: Grand Jury Prize. Fairhope Film Festival. September 2013
Winner: Asbury Park’s Paramount Award
Winner: Big River Film Festival’s Georgia Filmmaker of the Year
Nominated: Krakow Film Festival’s Golden Heynal Award
Nominated: SXSW’s 24 Beats Per Second Audience Award
North American Distributor: Virgil Films.
World Distributor: Cadiz Music
Available on iTunes, Amazon, and VHX.
Netflix launch September 2016
World Premiere: SXSW
International Premiere: In-Edit Barcelona
The Hollywood Reporter’s #1 Must See Music Movie at SXSW 2013
Official Selection: Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
Winner: Oxford American’s prize for Best Southern Film. May, 2013
Winner: Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Documentary Film of the Year. 2013
Winner: Audience Award, Best Louisiana Feature. New Orleans Film Festival. October 2013
Winner: Jury Mention, Best Louisiana Feature. New Orleans Film Festival. October 2013
"For lovers of jazz and rhythm’n’blues, or really for lovers of music in general, this is a film to savour in all its melodies and treasures. Somehow Lily Keber manages to piece together a tapestry of sounds and glimpses into the past that gives an all-round picture of a musician whose music was as hard to grasp as it was impossible to ignore. Just as saxophonist Alvin “Red” Tyler mentions at the closing of this documentary, “trying to record Booker was like trying to catch the wind”. Keber gets very close to that. Take a swig of rhythm."
-Upcoming
"This sincere, authoritative documentary is so very welcome as an eye-opening primer on a true New Orleans legend... It also offers a haunting look back at an authentic, carnivalesque New Orleans that may now be too largely confined to the past."
-Sight & Sound (British Film Institute)