The Studio currently has several projects in production. Find out more about them below:
Making Modern New Orleans
In the fall of 2012, the Documentary and Oral History Studio launched its first collaborative research initiative when it joined with veteran editor and journalist Jack Davis to film interviews with key historical figures who shaped policy and culture in New Orleans during the 1970s.
Find out more (coming soon).
On the Waterfront: New Orleans Longshoremen and the ILA 3000
Students from the Fall 2012 section HIST A404 paired with the International Longshoremen's Association 3000 to record memories about life on the docks in the era before containerization.
A Haven for All of Us: Stories from Dooky Chase Restaurant, 1941-1970
People today come from all over the world to taste the signature New Orleans dishes served at Dooky Chase Restaurant, but few who make this pilgrimage know about the landmark’s rich history from the time before Leah Chase became famous as “The Queen of Creole Cuisine.” Emily and Edgar “Dooky” Chase opened for business on the corner of Orleans Avenue and North Miro in 1941 with an eye toward creating something more than a typical neighborhood joint. Their full service bar and a separate dining room offered black New Orleanians the opportunity to have a special night out in an otherwise segregated town. The restaurant’s atmosphere along with the magnetic personality of the Chases helped it develop into a social hub of the community. King Zulu toasted there on Mardi Gras Day, and visiting black celebrities lent Dooky’s an air of excitement. Meanwhile, its private upstairs room sheltered politicians and Civil Rights activists. There was no place else quite like it. As one patron remembered, “it was a haven for all of us.”
Our documentary interviews focus on the recollections of people who remember life at Dooky Chase’s from the 1940s through the 1960s, a time that transformed not only the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Wards of New Orleans, but all of urban America. It is a story both about the restaurant and its people and the changes brought to black urban life in the decades following World War II, when white flight, desegregation, and urban planning decisions reconfigured the relationship between the rich and poor and black and white of New Orleans. It is the first feature-length documentary project being produced by the Loyola University Documentary and Oral History Studio, a unique program whose mission is to teach students how to document and research complex social and historical questions through the medium of oral history and documentary filmmaking.
The Deutsches Haus Collection and This Haus of Memories
Fulfilling its commitment to one hundred percent transcription of its interview material, the Documentary and Oral History studio employs a team of Loyola students who are transcribing the over 20 hours of interviews filmed with members of the Deutsches Haus in the process of making the documentary feature, This Haus of Memories.