Beirut on the Bayou (2019)

Lebanese author Raif Shwayri travels to Louisiana to trace the life of his grandfather who once worked as a peddler serving the Cajuns on Bayou Lafourche Alfred Sweet Papa Nicola spent nearly two decades in the early 20th century selling his wares to the Frenchspeaking melting pot that was developing on the edge of civilization His years of traveling to these isolated villages would eventually and surprisingly lead to substantial aid for tens of thousands of disabled and impoverished children in Lebanon This film celebrates the rarely told story of early ArabAmerican immigrants and includes neverbeforeseen 16mm footage of South Louisiana and Beirut from the 1950s It also includes rare photos of early Cajun life as well as an original Arabic score and a cover of a Cajun classic using Arabic instruments