Hollywood on the Bayou

Amid Houma’s venerable mansions, gardens, and swamps, filmmakers and television producers create visions of America’s past and intriguing glimpses into the real lives of bayou people. On your visit to Houma, you have an opportunity to see some of the beautiful settings that have added depth and drama to many notable and award-winning movies and TV programs.

On the History Channel’s series, Swamp People, father and son alligator hunters R.J. and Jay Paul Molinere of Houma embody the traditions of skilled trappers, hunters and fisherman in South Louisiana.

Magnolia Plantation house offered a powerful setting for the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Nicholas Sparks’ The Best of Me.

Will Smith stars in the upcoming feature film, Emancipation, shot at Ardoyne Plantation, the Victorian-gothic sugarcane mansion.

Scenes from Robert Duvall’s 1997 film The Apostle were filmed at this swamp-side church near Donner, LA.

Historic Downtown Houma stepped back in time to the 60s as it transformed for the recent Where the Crawdads Sing.

Easy Rider (1969)

Crazy in Alabama (1999)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

12 Years a Slave (2013)

The Best of Me (2014)

Other movies filmed in Houma, not photographed:

Deadline (2009)

Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)

American Ultra (2015)