If life in southwest Louisiana was a highlight reel, zydeco would be the soundtrack.
From backyard boils to graduation parties, no Louisiana celebration is complete without the music of local legends like Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band, or Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. and his legendary Ils Sont Partis players. When the good times are rolling, there’s probably a zydeco musician somewhere in the scene keeping the energy dialed up — but, the thing about a highlight reel is that it rarely shows the effort it took to get the party going in the first place.
In “Built on Zydeco,” a new documentary from Lafayette filmmakers Milton Arceneaux and Dustin Cravins, three zydeco stars pull back the curtain on their lives. Terrence Simien, Reggie Dural Jr. and Keith Frank are larger-than-life on stage, but in this film, they are working musicians balancing family, business and the grind of life on the road.
From left to right, Don Cravins, Reggie Dural Jr. and Terrence Simien are shown in “Built on Zydeco,” the recipient of the 2025 #CreateLouisiana French culture film grant.
“It’s a glimpse into the lives of these zydeco artists that are world-renowned, and happen to be friends of mine,” said Cravins. His father, Don Cravins, founded the Zydeco Extravaganza music festival in the 1980s to highlight the vibrancy of the region’s Creole culture and music.
“A year ago we were promoting Zydeco Extravaganza with a ‘get to know you’ series on social media, showcasing musicians with documentary-style interviews,” said Dustin Cravins. “It was a level of access that fans weren’t used to getting, and went over really big in the zydeco and Creole community. To me, that said there was a need for a documentary that would be more than somebody from the outside coming in to film a weekend they came to town.”
READ MORE: ‘An evolution, not a renaissance’: Cajun, zydeco music brings national media to Louisiana
Last month, “Built on Zydeco” received a $25,000 French culture film grant from #CreateLouisiana and TV5MONDE, a global French-language entertainment network. The grant is awarded once a year to a Louisiana film project that highlights stories of Francophone culture in the state.
In additional to highlighting three zydeco artists at the zenith of their careers, the film will also showcase interviews with rising artists and other well-known players in the genre. According to co-director Milton Arceneaux, viewers should expect to see a more intimate side of their favorite musicians — who they are as people, as well as performers.
“Keith Frank is a big, six-foot-something guy, and he’s so goofy. We show that side of him,” said Arceneaux. “We know Reggie (Reginald Dural Jr., or Buckwheat Zydeco Jr.) as someone who inherited this torch from his dad, and we show how he’s finding his own way. Terrence [Simien] had to fight to build his own name, he wasn’t born into a legacy.”
“We joke, laugh and the wall comes down. It’s a sense of connection that exposes who these people really are.”
Keith Frank is one of the Louisiana zydeco musicians featured in “Built on Zydeco,” the recipient of the 2025 #CreateLouisiana French culture film grant.
“Built on Zydeco” is also about the impact these artists have through their work. Zydeco is big business, part of a music and entertainment ecosystem that significantly impacts the state’s tourism economy. Zydeco stars like Simien, Dural and others are more than touring musicians — they are essentially ambassadors, exporting a sound and way of life that makes people want to experience Louisiana for themselves.
“These guys are oftentimes the soundtrack to our lives, and we take for granted the sacrifices they make to provide us with that quality of life,” said Cravins. “People may not know their favorite musician has a part time job to get by. They have to function, raise families, deal with illness.
“The weight and the burden of what they do makes this project a little different from most of what we’ve seen. It’s such a rich story about the reach that they’ve created for this music and this state. The film should leave those within the community feeling a great sense of pride in the culture they come from, and the torch bearers standing in the gap for it.”
“Built on Zydeco” is currently in production, and will premiere to audiences early next year at the 2026 New Orleans French Film Festival.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theadvocate.com ’
