Writer, producer and director Demi Anais learned the art of filmmaking as a media arts student in the four-year program at New Orleans' Lusher School, now Willow. After making two award-winning short films while a student, she’s now parlayed her knowledge of photography, narrative writing and directing into a beautiful new short film called “Vodou," which delves into the underlying Haitian culture and spirituality behind the practice of voodoo.
Her passion for filmmaking took a detour when she entered Tulane University, majoring in finance.
“I didn’t think I had the luxury to indulge myself in an artistic career,” Anais recounted. But, when the TV show “22 Jump Street” came to shoot on campus, she became an extra. It renewed her interest in storytelling, she said.
That was 2013, and Anais continued to work as an extra while earning her degree. After graduation, she joined Morgan Stanley, training to be a financial adviser, but soon realized it wasn't the work she was meant to do.
Instead, she got an opportunity in 2018 to work as a production assistant on the Academy Award-winning film “Green Book,” where she was introduced to the camera department while learning behind the scenes what it took to be a professional director.
Family connections
Becoming a student of the craft of filmmaking, she paid the bills by working camera for years on various productions, even joining the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE Local 600, in 2021.
After four years of camera work, she stepped away to become a director’s assistant on AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire.” Getting a bird’s-eye view of production from prep to post, learning everything from stunt work to acting, she compiled the skills to feel comfortable about taking one of her own scripts and turning it into a professional film.
The story she chose had a connection to her own family, which has Creole roots in Spain and France. However, she chose to explore Haitian voodoo, known there as vodou.
“My grandmother had passed away, so it was cathartic for me to write about her,” Anais said. “I envisioned a world where I could go back and visit her.
"Since I have family members who do tarot readings, and are into the spiritual side of voodoo, I wanted to interject fun, where my protagonist BR (played by actress Shyla Evangeline) visits her aunt, a voodoo priestess (actress Stacie Davis), in spite of the fact that her own mom had distanced herself from these traditions.
"I researched how New Orleans voodoo came to be, and how it became entwined with Catholicism, so as not to be demonized. This is the story of the less typical version of voodoo than what you traditionally see practiced on TV.”
Help from industry friends
With a lot of help from her friends in the industry (many who volunteered their time), Anais financed the film through crowdfunding. With a grant from Panavision for camera equipment, she was ready to cast her production.
Well-known casting director Ryan Glorioso donated his services and found the lead actors who would carry the film through the two-day shoot this past June in a Marigny home turned voodoo enclave, thanks to Sideshow Props in New Orleans which Anais says provided deep discounts.
Anais knew who she wanted as her cinematographer, but in the years that had passed since the two first met, Bron Moyi had become an established photographer, even shooting Jon Batiste’s “Freedom” music video, which won best video at the 2022 Grammys. Moyi had moved to Los Angeles, and Anais’ budget didn’t allow for his professional fees, but he came back to help her with the film and became an executive producer on “Vodou.”
What’s on screen is the lovely bonding of two women over their shared sense of spirituality, overlaid on a dreamy score by local composer Jay Weigel.
Saving a culture
Anais, 28, hopes the unique story can shed light on an often-misrepresented religion that is often steeped in racially charged superstition.
“These harmful superstitions create environments where individuals can be isolated and shamed in a larger society for practicing their beliefs,” Anais said. “This rejection, in turn, allows for the disappearance of cultures and practices over time through assimilation.
"Younger generations are subsequently cut off from their own family traditions, creating a different type of isolation. I hope viewers will be left with the idea of keeping an open mind when learning about cultures they’re unfamiliar with.”
The shoot was not without incident. On day two, while shooting a ritual dance outdoors, Anais said the heavens opened up, and a violent storm came out of nowhere, complete with hail and downed trees. For safety reasons, she sent most of the crew home. But with typical Demi Anais optimism, the filmmaker notes that in the final scenes of the film the ground looks “shiny and beautiful." So perhaps the rain was a blessing.
The film is now entering the festival circuit, and Anais hopes that it will be picked up for streaming, at some point. Her goal eventually is to direct feature films for major studios, but in the meantime a sci-fi short is up next, as she doesn’t want to be bound by genre. She has 12 new stories outlined, and says each one has something to say, hopefully unique and special.