Watch “The Best One-Eyed Junkie Piano Genius In New Orleans”
Bayou Maharajah is the award winning documentary chronicling the wild life of James Booker, sometimes considered New Orleans' greatest jazz and soul pianist. Booker was quite the character, an openly gay musician touring with some of the world's greatest soul and RnB acts, inbetween recording numerous classic tracks of his own. He would wear outrageous, over sized afro wigs to smuggle drugs on tour, and invent hundreds of stories to explain away his missing eye, inevitably hidden behind one of his flamboyantly decorated eyepatches- basically he's ideal documentary material.
The film, directed by Lily Keber, collects archive footage of Booker in interview and performance, alongside talking heads from Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, and Booker's some time piano student, Harry Connick Jnr. Having picked up numerous festival awards, it's now due for showing in the UK, playing on the following dates throughout July and August
July:
Friday 8 th Oswestry Kinokulture tickets
Friday 8 th – Saturday 9 th London Bernie Grant Arts Centre tickets
Friday 8 th – Thursday 14 th Bristol Watershed tickets
Fri 8 th – Sun 10 th , Wed 13 th – Thur 14 th Derby QUAD tickets
Saturday 9 th Colchester First Site tickets
Thursday 14 th Bury St Edmunds Abbeygate Cinema tickets
Friday 15 th – Thursday 21 st London DocHouse Curzon tickets
Monday 18 th Derry Nerve Centre tickets
Tuesday 19 th – Wednesday 20 th Hebden Bridge Picture House tickets
Thursday 21st July London Bernie Grant Arts Centre tickets
Friday 22nd – Thursday 28 th London Picturehouse Central tickets
Saturday 23 rd Hastings Electric Palace tickets
Saturday 23 rd London Bernie Grant Arts Centre tickets
Sunday 24 th Saffron Walden Saffron Screen tickets
Monday 25 th Norwich Cinema City tickets
Monday 25 th London Hackney Picturehouse tickets
Monday 25 th London Ritzy Cinema Brixton tickets
Monday 25 th London Crouch End Picturehouse tickets
Wednesday 27 th London Regent Street Cinema tickets
Sunday 31 st Leeds Hyde Park Picturehouse tickets
August:
Monday 1 st – Tuesday 2 nd Edinburgh Film House tickets
Tuesday 2 nd Manchester Home tickets
Wednesday 3 rd London Regent Street Cinema tickets
Thursday 4 th Leeds Hyde Park Picturehouse tickets
Thursday 4 th London Bernie Grant Arts Centre tickets
Sunday 14 th London Bernie Grant Arts Centre tickets