Eve’s Bayou

Part of the Special Series FEMINIST FRAMES

1962, Louisiana, Southern United States: This is where Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett) lives, the daughter of the popular town doctor Dr. Louise Batiste (Samuel L. Jackson) and his wife Roz (Lynn Whitfield), along with her 14-year-old sister Cisely (Meagan Good) and her little brother Poe. The Batistes are wealthy, the intellectual center of the town; they have style and throw legendary parties. There is no problem Dr. Batiste cannot solve; he is popular—too popular?—with the ladies. Is he really a descendant of the noble General Jean Paul Batiste, the founder of “Eve’s Bayou”? A legend surrounds the town’s origins: the general is said to have given the land to a mysterious, enslaved African woman after she healed him.

Eve is ten years old; the adult world is—still—incomprehensible. Eve watches as her father gets involved with the exciting Matty Mereaux (Lisa Nicole Carson). Her sister Cicely refuses to believe her. It can’t be that their beloved father is doing something wrong. She must be mistaken.

When the conflicts between her parents become impossible to ignore, Eve seeks help from her aunt Mozelle Batiste Delacroix (Debbi Morgan). She is nicknamed “The Black Widow” because the deaths of her husbands were always foreshadowed by a premonition. Cicely enters puberty and also begins to behave strangely. When the truth comes to light, the girls help each other...