Director and writer Tony Ledet's portrait of a child suffering from Autism hits home in Cade, who is the subject of the film and also Ledet's cousin. Above is a still from the nine minute short that premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival.

The New Orleans Film Festival begins on October 14th and a film maker from Meraux, Tony Ledet, has been invited to show his recent short work, “Cade” as part of the select line up.

“Every year, the film festival holds a competition to show different films and this year we received nearly one-thousand submissions,” said Caroline Sinders with the New Orleans Film Society. “We accepted less than 15% of those submissions.”

Tony Ledet, director and writer of “Cade,” is a Louisiana filmmaker from Meraux. “Cade” is a documentary short, providing an inside look at the life of a family with a child suffering with severe autism.

The subject for the film came out of the director’s personal relationship with the family he filmed.

“I’m related to them, and I’ve known them for so long and it’s a completely different life,” Ledet said.

That access to the subjects—his aunt Julie, uncle Kelly and his cousin Cade—gave Ledet the chance to document a life that few ever get to see.

Ledet had made the movie for a class while attending University of New Orleans’ film program. During his last year, one of the professors in the program suggested the work might be ready for a larger audience outside the classroom.

“This was a project for my documentary class last Fall, and my teacher said it was good and we should submit it, and it could win some awards,” Ledet said.

Ledet has since graduated from UNO, and has continued to shoot footage of Cade, for a possible extended version of the short film since accepted into the New Orleans Film Society’s Festival. Ledet is also working on production for another documentary with film-maker Brad Bores called “When the Bell Rings,” an extensive look at a 40-year-old David ‘Dino” Wells, a boxer making a late life run at reclaimed glory.

Cade will be premiering on Sundary, October 16, as part of the week long New Orleans Film Festival.

In addition to the annual Film Festival each fall, the NOFS hosts special events throughout the year. The NOFS also partners with local organizations to present monthly film series, including with Chalmette Movie’s on W. Judge Perez.

The Chalmette Movies, co-run by business partners Ellis Fortinberry and Wendeslaus Schulz, regularly works with the NOFS and other local and national distributers to bring films to the New Orleans area that would otherwise never be shown.

“The New Orleans Film Society members have been very nice to us, and very supportive of the theater,” Fortinberry said.

“We offer the New Orleans Film Society a free movie a week,” Fortinberry continued. “We also do screenings with them…[and] We try to reserve half a screen, so we can play different things for the public,” said Fortinberry.

One of the recent runs was the independent film Bellflower, offered for a limited run only in Chalmette for the entire New Orleans area, and also includes the large collection of films in the theaters “Chalmette Arts Scene”. This extensive list includes a number of critically-acclaimed and award winning movies, like Exit through the Gift Shop, The Tempest and Bury the Hatchet, that were featured only at Chalmette’s theater, and some filmed right here in Louisiana.

Fortinberry also noted that several of the screenings for the upcoming film festival—including “Tabloid”—will only be available in Chalmette. And both the theater and the film society look forward to bringing more hard to find features to the area.

“It shows we’re doing something right,” Fortinberry said. “I mean, why don’t those other oscar-nominated films get played at the other theaters?”

The schedule for the film festival begins this Friday, and the showtimes are as follows:

Friday, Oct. 14
7:30 Tabloid

Saturday, Oct. 15
2:30 Letting Go
5:00 Magic Bus: The Ken Kesey Story
7:00 Barracuda
9:30 The Human Centipede 2

Sunday, Oct. 16
2:30 No Floodwall Here
4:30 Letting Go
7:00 Tabloid
9:30 Barracuda

Monday, Oct. 17
7:00 With Great Power
9:30 Tabloid

Tuesday, Oct. 18
7:00 Tabloid
9:30 Swamp Shark

Wednesday, Oct. 19
7:00 The Big Fix
9:30 The Human Centipede 2

Thursday, Oct. 20
7:00 Undefeated
9:30 The Human Centipede 2

For more information on the New Orleans Film Society festival, including movie trailers, see neworleansfilmsociety.org/festival or www.chalmettemovies.com/artscene.