New film documents celebrations of expat Acadians

Acadians are celebrating their national holiday today and not just in the Maritimes.

A film crew from the Moncton area is in France documenting celebrations in that country by descendants of refugees who were deported from Acadia in the mid 1700s.

"They've kept their Acadian culture going," said filmmaker Phil Comeau. "They still have Acadian flags flying. "

Actress and singer Isabelle Theriault-Cyr, who is originally from Moncton, is starring in the film, which Comeau said will be called Roots and Diaspora.

They've been travelling around France in recent weeks meeting people of Acadian ancestry who share her family names.

She's finding out many of them are her cousins, he said.

Acadian communities in France

During the Expulsion, quite a few Acadians were deported to prison in England, he said, and about 5,000 were sent to France. 

Most of the filming was done in the Poitou region — now officially known as Nouvelle Aquitane, between La Rochelle on the Atlantic Coast and the inland cities of Poitiers and Châtellerault.

There are many Acadian associations in the area, said Comeau.

One stop was in Nantes, he said, where about 2,000 Acadians lived for a period after the Expulsion. Within a couple of decades, however, most of them recrossed the Atlantic to Louisiana, where they founded the Cajun community.

On Friday, the film crew was on a small island called Belle Isle en Mer, about 15 kilometres from the coast in Brittany, which Comeau described as a beautiful spot, surrounded by cliffs and bays.

Half the population there is Acadian, he said.

There have been fun, lighthearted moments during filming, said Comeau, and more serious ones. 

One of the final filming locations was a cemetery in Normandie, where an uncle of Theriault-Cyr's died during the Second World War.

But even at Juno Beach, the atmosphere on Aug. 15 is one of celebration, said Comeau.

"They're doing a huge tintamarre with about 2,000 people usually on the streets of Normandie as a thank you."

Acadians in France celebrate in much the same way Acadians do in the Maritimes, he said — with flags flying, dressed in red, white, blue and yellow and banging on pots and pans. 

They also feast on many of the same foods, he said — lots of seafood and their own version of fricot, called poule au Krassens, which uses thyme instead of savoury.

"We've been separated 250 years. It just goes to show the Acadian culture is quite strong and people are proud of what their ancestors were able to do — succeed through tragedies and whatnot. I think it's great that people are proud."

Acadian films

Shooting wraps up Monday with Theriault-Cyr performing a song she has composed about the whole trip for an expected crowd of 1,000.

Meanwhile, Comeau is submitting paperwork to record-keepers with Guinness.

One of his previous films, Belle Isle en Acadie, about Acadians from Brittany who attended the World Acadian Congress in P.E.I. and New Brunswick three years ago, has now racked up 412 awards in 78 countries, he said.

Another of his films Femmes Capitaines is being translated into English.

It's about a young woman from a fishing family in Lameque with a dream of becoming a sea captain.

The 52-minute documentary captures Marilyn Gauvin as she sets sail on her father's fishing boat and travels to meet female fishing captains from Caraquet, Anse-Bleue, Miscou, and Lunenberg, N.S.

Comeau said it was a pleasant experience being on board with woman captains, who seemed to want the best for their team. He noted one of them shared profits with her crew, as opposed to paying wages or salaries. 

But what really blew him away was seeing how well they did their jobs out on the water.

For her part, Gauvin discovers the lucrative, but dangerous fishing business is much more accessible to women than it used to be.

Comeau expects Femmes Capitaines will be screened this fall at film festivals in Fredericton and Moncton.