Missouri’s largest concentration of people identifying as French Creole resides in the eastern part of the state, where the unique dialect and folkways of early-18th-century French settlers endured in isolated enclaves into the 20th century. One such place was the Old Mines community in Washington County.

There, over the 300 years since their ancestors settled in the region, French Creoles have developed and nurtured a vast collection of folktales. Artist and filmmaker Brian Hawkins explores that culture in a discussion of his upcoming, feature-length documentary Asiminier: Folklore of the Missouri French Creoles.

Hawkins discusses the current state of his research and shares segments of the interviews and animations that will be a part of the finished film.