Treme-based creative team supports Topanga Film Festival

Dennis “DJ” Joseph, a Treme-based documentarian, music historian, filmmaker/videographer and educator best-known for his compilation of over 20-years of historical footage of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, has joined forces with developer Glenn Amedee in creating the St. Bernard Entertainment Complex and in forging an alliance with the Topanga Film Festival and the Topanga Film Institute.

Joseph and Amedee said they have secured the bulk of funding needed to construct a multi-faceted entertainment complex that will include a state-of-the-art production facility dedicated to “broader-casting” and multimedia. The duo plans to revitalize multiple city blocks along St. Bernard Avenue, blighted by Hurricane Katrina to provide a live event facility similar to the Decatur Street-based House of Blues.

“Our live event venue and entertainment complex is in the heart of the Treme, where New Orleans music lives, breathes, reproduces and continues its legacy of greatness,” Amedee said.

“We are enthused about forging a relationship with the Topanga Film Institute in fostering cultural and creative exchange. We have a lot of raw talent here in the Treme and in greater New Orleans and new avenues of outreach are always welcome, particularly if they come with reciprocity, like that which we expect through the Topanga Film Festival and institute,” Joseph said.

Joseph said that he is excited about the prospect of New Orleans Public School students, charter school students and the broad spectrum of high school and college students in the region participating in the Suitable for All Screens competition. Amedee and Joseph said they also look forward providing educational and production opportunities to New Orleans youth through their studio and in alliance with the Topanga Film Festival and similarly disposed festivals throughout the world.