REFRAMING Cinema Film Festival Debuted in Lafayette

Lafayette’s first Black-led film festival seeks to ignite the region’s artistic creativity and diverse cultures through filmmaking.

Produced and hosted by the nonprofit media organization Vues de Culture, the REFRAMING Cinema Film Festival reshaped the local arts and film scene in South Louisiana.

Held at the LITE Center, the festival was born out of the lack of intentional arts and film spaces centering, celebrating, and uplifting African Americans, Creoles of Color, and other underrepresented filmmakers. A collective of Louisiana Creoles joined together to create the REFRAMING Cinema Film Festival.

Intentional exposure and artistic inclusivity mattered to the RCFF: “As a first-year festival, RCFF was more than just a new event—it was the start of a movement to reshape how films by Black, Creole, Indigenous, and other underrepresented creatives were seen, valued, and distributed.”

Founding Vues de Culture board members included Milton Arceneaux, Maisha Zuri Chargois, Micaéla M. Simpson, Dawn P. Arceneaux, Dustin Cravins, and Robert Chevalier.

Highlighting the greatness in diversity, Vues de Culture board members came from a range of professions, such as lawyers, photographers, registered nurses, cultural preservationists, and more.