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A Good Time to Be Home
New Orleans native and filmmaker Ashley Charbonnet has returned to her native city
to pursue her dreams and perfect her
craft in the film industry.
With so many other places boasting of the endless opportunities, young professionals seeking greener grass are easily lured away. However, not all of our home talents are following that trend.
Ashley Charbonnet has returned to New Orleans that she knows and loves to work in the film industry that has taken off here. But don’t make the mistake of calling New Orleans Hollywood South. Charbonnet insists that we do not have to jump on that band wagon because the city has its own identity in the booming film industry.
After studying at The New York Film Academy and completing her master’s degree at Columbia University, Charbonnet has returned to the city that inspired her. She is reintroducing herself as a writer, director and filmmaker through her work in the film “The Price of Flowers” starring Lance Nichols and Justin Scalise. The film was produced by Christopher C. Brown and Jason D. Buch.
Since its debut in 2010 at the Columbia University Film Festival the drama has been received well, it was even awarded an honorable mention at the Topanga Film Festival last summer. The film made its international debut at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Impressively it was accepted in the 21st Annual Inside Out Toronto Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, an event that typically draws more than 35,000 people and is considered the largest event of its kind in Canada.
With all the prestige and excitement surrounding the success of the film, the writer and director keeps her feet planted firmly on the ground that she was raised on. Charbonnet is young lady that comes across as a warm soul with a caring attitude. The word family comes up again and again during a conversation at a trendy Bywater coffee shop. Charbonnet expressed the importance of returning home.
“It is a good time to be home when you are away for so long, and not just return to vacation or to film, but to come home and plant roots and have a support system,” she says.
Charbonnet’s passion for movies and film is no accident. It is a love she has shared with her father since she was a young child. She remembers being able to recite much of the dialogue from The Godfather. She recalls the closet in her childhood home being filled with nothing but VHS movies. Grown-ups would marvel that a young child knew who actors like James Cagney were. Charbonnet continues to enjoy attending movies more than anything. She loves that the summer time brings the big blockbusters to the screen and enjoys everything from small art house films to Harry Potter. She only wishes that there were more venues for independent films in the area. With Charbonnet‘s talent and determination New Orleans future in film is promising.
These days, Charbonnet is busy moving into her grandmother’s home that was recently renovated in Broadmoor and getting reacquainted with the city that has inspired the characters in her film. She recalls visits as a young girl to the rehabilitation center Bridge House with her father to make donations and drop off discarded items. It was during these particular visits that she was exposed to people with mental illness and drug addiction. This made an impact on Charbonnet who explores many of these issues in “The Price of Flowers”.
She explains that she wanted to tell the story of what people take for granted each day such the importance of having your own home, the components of what makes a happy life, what is reachable and how are we able to obtain these things.
There are so many more issues to tackle that Charbonnet is now in the process of writing a full length feature of the film. There is the monumental task of finding the financing for the feature, shooting it and finally sending it out for distribution. Charbonnet spends most of her time perfecting the script.
When Charbonnet is not writing her own scripts she is passionately working on making New Orleans a film destination. In her daily role as the filmmaker program coordinator at New Orleans Video Access Center, Charbonnet is committed to nurturing local filmmakers.
NOVAC recently celebrated its 39th year. It is the longest continually running nonprofit in the South Eastern United States. In the early seventies, NOVAC was established to use television as an educational tool to help impoverished and disenfranchised communities. Through the years, this grassroots organization has provided classes in camera, cutting and soundtrack.
Today NOVAC continues to train by developing curriculum and holding workshops to help educate local filmmakers. Over 200 individuals have been trained in the past few years as part of workforce development program to obtain jobs in the industry. And now with the influx of so many big productions taking place locally NOVAC is continuing to grow and expand with lectures and panel discussions by some of the top names in the business.
Charbonnet says that NOVAC is committed to using locals on set as much as possible and reiterates how important it is for residents of the Gulf South to be involved in these ongoing projects.
“We not only contribute to films shot locally, we want to create a community of filmmakers. We want to see our own stories on screen,” she says. “We have always had great stories, and it’s now time for us to share those great stories.”
