Backdrop Louisiana!

The Backdrop Louisiana! Film Poster Exhibit debuted at the Slidell Cultural Center in January 2020. It was a collaboration between Movie Poster Archives and Hollywood on the Bayou.

Louisiana has been center stage in the film industry beginning with opening of the first indoor seated movie theater in the U.S. in New Orleans in 1896. Film studios opened in New Orleans a full decade before the first film was made in Hollywood. Since then over 3000 films have been made in or about Louisiana.

Backdrop Louisiana! presents a glimpse of Louisiana’s influence on the film industry. The first part of the exhibit focuses on early Louisiana film production starting in 1898 and features the first known studio issued poster for Edison films that would have been shown in Louisiana in 1900. It continues highlighting major Louisiana production until the 1960s presenting background stories and original movie posters of the early films made in the state. Part two moves to regional film production through present day.

The exhibit also presents international movie posters from France, Italy, Australia, England, Japan and other countries to give a glimpse of how the rest of the world sees Louisiana.