Documenting the Culture of New Orleans

Alejandro de los Rios ’07 in New Orleans

While I was New Orleans for the National College Media Convention at the end of last month, I was able to get together with one of our former sports editors and columnists, Alejandro de los Rios ’07. He’s been living in New Orleans for the past few years, freelancing stories and making a documentary on New Orleans brass bands. 
Check out his Thrillist pieces on the best burgers or the 10 best food trucks in New Orleans, or this Gambit piece on the New Orleans Hornets Pelicans. 
“Brass Roots,” the documentary he is hard at work completing, is an in-depth look at the art and culture of the New Orleans brass bands and their role in the life of the city. He describes the project in this 2011 interview with the website “Untapped Cities.”

De los Rios Launches New Orleans Film Project

Alex de los Rios ’07, our former sports editor and columnist, is part of an ambitious project in New Orleans: “to chronicle the history, people and culture surrounding contemporary New Orleans brass band music.” The documentary, to be called “Brass Roots, ” is an outgrowth of a series of interviews of local brass bands. You can find out more at the Brass Roots blog.
Alex writes:
“I moved to New Orleans in 2007 the fall after graduation. It was a complete shot in the dark — I had no job, no money and knew just three people in the city — but thankfully it worked out. Really, I have The Ithacan to thank for it. It was through my work at IC that I got an internship at ESPN the Magazine, when I moved to New Orleans I used that as an in to work for the local alt-weekly Gambit (www.bestofneworleans.com) covering the Hornets and Saints. That wasn't enough to be fully employed, though. We started the brass band documentary because a friend — who photographs sports — and I decided we were sick of not having anything to do in the summer. The rest was just putting in work getting to know the bands and honing the techniques we learned doing short videos for Gambit and adapting them to a documentary format. More than two years later and we're raising money to finish the film and have real dreams to premiere at film festivals. Not bad for a guy who once counted this as his greatest journalistic achievement: Bombs Away.”
The project is now in the kickoff stage, and it needs your support. Go to the Brass Roots Kickstarter Page and pledge your support.