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Pat Mire continues Cajun mission
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W e d n e s d ay, J u ly 22, 2026
1GN
HEALING ARTS
Independent film director’s latest is murder mystery
Bobby Boucher still gets a laugh. The awkward dimwit with the exaggerated Cajun accent remains an icon from the 1998 movie, “The Waterboy.” Sure, actor Adam Sandler was just playing a character in a comedy. But Boucher feeds into old stereotypes about Louisiana. People love us as much as they don’t understand us. I’ve had to explain that New Orleans is not Cajun country. Drive two hours west on Interstate 10 for that. Yes, Louisiana has roads and bridges and is not overrun with swamps and Herman alligators. I still reFuselier member the look of disbelief from the person I told that Lafayette has an airport. I’ll have to start suggesting that the uninitiated watch “Pointe Noire,” the latest from independent film director Pat Mire. The murder mystery is now available for rent or purchase in the United States and Canada on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, DISH and Vimeo VOD. A French-speaking native of Eunice and Lafayette resident, Mire has spent 30 years telling compelling stories in settings filled with Cajun traditions and culture. His Cinema on the Bayou event stands as the state’s secondoldest, annual international juried film festival. “Pointe Noire,” filmed throughout St. Landry Parish and the surrounding area in southwest Louisiana, is the story of Louis Leger, a filmmaker and crawfish farmer played by Roy Dupuis. He and attorney Dolores Arceneaux (Myriam Cyr) try to save Joel Richard (Michael Bienvenu), a wrongly convicted inmate on Death Row. Leger and Arceneaux uncover secrets related to rice farmer Nathan Smith, portrayed by Scott native and French music icon Zachary Richard. But the revelations may be too late to prevent the surprise ending. True to his career mission, Mire carves another story that reflects his native Cajun culture. Elements of the traditional Courir de Mardi Gras, rice fields, traiteur (faith healer), hand-fishing, LA31 Beer (brewed in Arnaudville) and the Whirlybird dance hall in Opelousas fuel the narrative. The film offers an introduction to Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal nerve disorder that affects Acadian descendants and the Jewish population. Characters with familiar surnames of Mouton, Richard, Touchet and Arceneaux float in and out of English and Cajun
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PHOTO BY KIM ASHFORD
Taylor Matherne, left, and Sariah Sizemore play and sing at their immersive sound and visual experience, Honey Gold Experience, at the Old State Capitol on June 25.
BR singer returns home with open heart and ready to share a safe space
BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer
Baton Rouge native Sariah Sizemore was sitting in a hot spring pool in Cañon de Guadalupe in Baja California, Mexico. A yoga teacher asked her if she wanted to try a different type of breath work — a simple three-part breath — and Sizemore said, “Sure, I’ll try it.” “All I know is that my heart opened,” she said. “I was crying and releasing all this pain that I was holding. It was this beautiful kind of physical, spiritual experience that I had never had before.” Sizemore had found a safe space. She spent the next decade figuring out how to share the relief and help she found with others. After more than 20 years in California, Sizemore returned to her hometown in 2022 to bring her breathwork and meditation to her fellow Louisianans. She founded Ritual Work, a healing and coaching wellness business that offers private sessions and group workshops. She’s working to bring the kind of healing she experienced and studied on the West Coast to Baton Rouge, without asking anyone to give up the faith they STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON cherish. Sariah Sizemore stands next to a massage table she uses during healing sessions in Since her return to Louisiana, Sizeher home. more has used her training as a certified life coach, counselor and yoga teacher to hold Box Studio at the Cary Saurage Commuhealing and coaching sesnity Arts Center and is designed to help people reconnect sions at her house for cliwith their creativity, ents dealing with anxiety, “In the very clarity and purpose chronic pain, stress and first class I through expressive other ailments. She cretook with her, arts. ates a personalized plan Expressive arts she did this fire for clients so they can have been a steady belly breathing practice self-care rituals part of Sizemore’s on their own time. that gave me life. The daughter “Part of their homework so much relief. of the late Baton is to go out on a walk evI was able to Rouge blues singer ery day and connect with Lisa Hofmeister, breathe through nature,” Sizemore said, Sizemore brings her “or they get journaling some of the strong voice to her prompts or letter writpain, and so I Healing Arts working exercises to heal and started seeing PHOTO BY KIM ASHFORD let go of energy that they shop series through might have with other Participants take part in the Honey Gold Experience at singing simple cho- her on a regular people.” ruses during medibasis.” the Old State Capitol on June 25. Laura Kearns, of Praitation times. She LAURA KEARNS, also uses a gong and rieville, was struggling of Prairieville sound bowls as well. with chronic pain when she went to one basis.” This summer, in partnership with the Sizemore sings of Sizemore’s workshops at The Red Shoes. Kearns said the breathing prac- Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, over participants tice that Sizemore taught her has helped. Sizemore is providing a four-part im- with a clear, lullaby-like tone. Work“In the very first class I took with her, mersive wellness series for artists, en- shop attendees spread out over the floor, she did this fire belly breathing that gave trepreneurs, professionals and anyone seated or sometimes lying on mats to me so much relief,” Kearns said. “I was feeling stuck. stretch and breathe through meditation able to breathe through some of the pain, The Healing Arts series takes place exercises. and so I started seeing her on a regular in the Virginia and John Noland Black
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