Of Mind and Music, the second feature film from Baton Rouge writer, director and producer Richie Adams, opens this month with screenings across the country. The music-filled drama’s release follows an award-winning run on the film-festival circuit.
Based on a novel by Dr. Nicolas Bazan, Of Mind and Music tells the story of a New Orleans neuroscientist who, after being consoled by a street musician’s performances, does everything he can to help the singer when Alzheimer’s disease progressively steals her memories, livelihood and identity.
In January, the Manship Theatre hosted an early screening of the film where 225 got to talk with Adams about how it came together.
How did this project come to you?
In 2008, I directed a commercial for the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Dr. Bazan is the founding director of the center’s Neuroscience Center of Excellence. I was so impressed with his passion for making sure everything we did was right.
At the end of the final day of shooting the commercial, Dr. Bazan pulled me aside and said, “I have written a novel called Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind. I’d like to discuss the possibility of making it into an independent film.”
Aunjanue Ellis and Bill Cobbs star in Richie Adams’ ‘Of Mind and Music.’
What in the story appealed to the storyteller in you?
The connection that all human beings have with music.
Of Mind and Music captures its New Orleans settings beautifully. Is the city a supporting player in the movie?
One hundred percent. What I, and any Louisiana filmmaker, brings to a film shot in New Orleans is our love for the city. I had to depict it accurately, or I could never look anyone there in the eyes again.
Joaquim de Almeida also stars in the film.
Much of the novel is set in the French Quarter. Why did you relocate those scenes to the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood?
Frenchmen Street and the Marigny are now where the music is happening. But the relocation really came from the prohibitive cost of shooting in the French Quarter. And the Quarter is loud! If you can’t afford to shut an entire street down, there’s no way to get proper sound there.
Dr. Bazan has said the message of the movie is hope. What do you think the message is?
I found the message while I was writing and directing the movie. It’s the idea of people helping people in times of need, people rallying around others, regardless of race, class and economic status. That is a powerful force.
What’s your next film project?
I’m writing a screenplay with my father, Richard Barlow Adams. It’s called Before the Carol. It’s a fictional account of what inspired Charles Dickens to write A Christmas Carol.
WHAT’S NEXT: Adams, in addition to making movies, owns and operates River Road Creative. The company designs title sequences for film, TV and the web. Recent projects include Creed, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and the upcoming LBJ, a biopic about President Lyndon Baines Johnson directed by Rob Reiner and starring Woody Harrelson.
