Film crews traipsing the Louisiana countryside are a common sight these days but back in 1972, seeing such a troupe must have been mind-boggling. That was years before the late ’80s flick The Big Easy hit the silver screen and the world discovered Cajun, making its music, food and dance fashionable to the point of spawning a regional tourism industry. But that’s when French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bruneau first documented Louisiana French culture as seen through the eyes of music spokesmen Dewey Balfa, Nathan Abshire, Clifton Chenier, Canray Fontenot, “Bois Sec” Ardoin, Dennis McGee, Sady Courville and others.

The landmark film that introduced a forgotten American culture to European audiences is now available on DVD, and it’s chilling to see those who left us long ago like a young, slender, curly-headed Balfa playing fiddle with his brothers Will and Rodney as well as Abshire performing his signature move of swinging the accordion from side to side during “Pinegrove Blues.”

More than anything, this film uses the music to explain a culture. Troubadour twin brothers Bee and Ed Deshotels sing ancient ballads like “Mes souliers rouges” that’s still known in Quebec and France today. “It’s a rough song to sing,” Bee says, since the lyrics accumulate each time through and requires an excellent memory to sing every verse at a brisk tempo.

Also interesting are interviews conducted with Abshire and Ardoin that reveal their outlooks on life. Ardoin and his mother talk about how life was better when it was harder. Amid all his junkyard treasures, Abshire recounts how it used to take months to manually harvest a field. Now with modern technology, it can be accomplished in a few afternoons, posing the question in his mind, where will all those people find work? These days, Abshire’s apprehensions on the technological advances of farming may be considered obsolete but in some ways, the loss of jobs issue is still relevant. Rating: Two crawfish claws up.