Louisiana Story
1948 film by Robert J. Flaherty
Louisiana Story is a 1948 American black-and-white drama film directed and produced by Robert J. Flaherty. The script was written by Flaherty and his wife Frances H. Flaherty. Although it has historically been represented as a documentary film, the events and characters depicted are fictional. The film was commissioned by the Standard Oil Company to promote its drilling ventures in the Louisiana bayous.
Plot
A young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon live an idyllic existence playing in the bayous of Louisiana. His elderly father allows an oil company to drill for oil in the inlet that runs behind their house. An inland barge is towed into the inlet from interconnecting waterways. The rig crew completes its operation and its friendly drillers depart, leaving behind a clean environment and a wealthy family.
Cast
Lenador Devinchi
Lionel Le Blanc as His Father
E. Bienvenu as His Mother (as Mrs. E. Bienvenu)
Frank Hardy as The Driller
C.P. Guedry as The Boilerman
Production
Louisiana Story was shot on location over the course of 15 months in the Louisiana bayou country, using local residents for actors.
“Louisiana Story” enters the record as 1948 film by Robert J. Flaherty. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Louisiana, Story and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Louisiana Story” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Louisiana, Story and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2748409. VIAF identifies the subject as 219193469. The Library of Congress control number is no2013116041. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Louisiana Story” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.