My Louisiana Love

Documentary Short | Sharon Linezo Hong

My Louisiana Love follows a young Native American woman, Monique Verdin, as she returns to Southeast Louisiana to reunite with her Houma Indian family. But soon she sees that her people’s traditional way of life- fishing , trapping, and hunting in these fragile wetlands – is threatened by a cycle of man-made environmental crises. The documentary shows Monique’s turn to activism after Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. A personal reflection on the complex and uneven relationship between the oil industry and the indigenous community of the Mississippi Delta, it is both unique and frighteningly familiar.

57 minutes

Release: April 2012

Expiration: July 1, 2021

Distributor: America ReFramed

Rights: Unlimited releases over two (2) years beginning 7/1/2019;

SCH/1YR (for K‐12); and non‐commercial cable rights

Sharon Linezo Hong

Director/Co-Producer/Co-Writer

Sharon Linezo Hong is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Cambridge, MA. Sharon experientially learned filmmaking through her five-years of directing, producing, and co-writing My Louisiana Love, her first full-length documentary. Sharon’s mentors and advisors for this film include Julie Mallozzi, Fernanda Rossi, Robb Moss, and Judith Helfand. Sharon augmented this learning experience by taking classes on film theory and technical training at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. My Louisiana Love has been screening at festivals, museums, and universities, and will be broadcasted on Public Television (2012). Sharon founded Within A Sense, LLC, an independent production company aspiring to create portrait documentaries reflecting on social and environmental issues through personal perspective.

Monique Michelle Verdin

Co-Producer/Co-Writer

Monique Michelle Verdin is a native daughter of southeast Louisiana. Her intimate documentation of the Mississippi River Deltas’ indigenous Houma nation exposes the complex interconnectedness of environment, economics, culture, climate and change. Her photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is included in The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous, Yale University Press (2008) and Nonesuch Records’ Habitat for Humanity benefit album Our New Orleans (2005). She received her bachelors degree in Mass Communication at Loyola University in New Orleans. My Louisiana Love (2012) is her first documentary film.

Julie Mallozzi

Co-Producer/Editor

Julie Mallozzi is an independent documentary filmmaker whose work explores the fluidity of cultural identity and historical memory. Julie’s films have been supported by Sundance Documentary Fund, ITVS, Center for Asian American Media, LEF Foundation, and Humanities Foundations. Her recent film Monkey Dance screened at festivals around the world and was broadcast nationally on public television in 2006. Julie has served as a consultant and editor for several films, including editing Ross McElwee’s In Paraguay. She received her BA from Harvard University and her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Julie has taught filmmaking at Harvard University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Boston University.