Glen Pitre

Glen Pitre, a renowned filmmaker, was born in Cut Off, Louisiana, where he spent his summers working as a shrimp fisherman to support his education at Harvard. By the time he was just 25 years old, American Film magazine had already dubbed him the "father of the Cajun film" due to his remarkable low-budget, locally set, and dialect-costumed dramas that consistently broke house records in cinemas throughout bayou country. With the support of the prestigious Sundance Institute, Pitre's internationally acclaimed 1986 film, Belizaire the Cajun, marked a significant milestone as his first English-language production. Since then, Pitre has worked across various mediums, often collaborating with his wife Michelle Benoit, and has received numerous awards, grants, and honors for his work, including a prestigious knighthood from France. In 2003, the esteemed film critic Roger Ebert hailed Pitre as a "legendary American regional director."