Two Screenings of “Iron Sharpens Iron” in Plaquemines Parish

Directed by independent filmmaker John Richie and produced by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the documentary Iron Sharpens Iron (2022) chronicles Ironton’s fight against the development of the Plaquemines Liquids Terminal (PLT) atop land that includes the community’s ancestral burial grounds, as well as the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ida.

The Office of District 7 Plaquemines Parish Representative Carlton LaFrance will host two screenings of the film in Plaquemines Parish this summer. On Tuesday, July 26, the Belle Chasse High School Auditorium will host a screening at 6 p.m. Then on Wednesday, August 3, the Port Sulphur YMCA will host a screening at 6 p.m. The film runs 27 minutes, and admission to both screenings is free.

Ironton, Louisiana, located in Plaquemines Parish, traces its history back to emancipation, with many of the community’s founders having once been enslaved at nearby St. Rosalie Plantation. Their descendants have remained in the area, maintaining a community despite decades of racial segregation and economic injustice.

Learn more about Ironton in 64 Parishes.