Now, for Something Completely Different

The Scene: The word heard over and over at Thursday evening’s premiere of “Eve’s Bayou” at Mann’s Chinese Theater was “passion.” The film, an acclaimed effort by first-time director Kasi Lemmons, stars Samuel L. Jackson (who also produced), Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Diahann Carroll, Lisa Nicole Carson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Meagan Good and 11-year-old Jurnee Smollett as Eve, in a story of an affluent Louisiana bayou family in the 1960s. “It was a truly passionate project for everyone,” said TriMark Pictures President Mark Amin in the lengthy prescreening speechifying. “It was a script that didn’t fit any category.” Afterward, a party at the House of Blues featured a performance by soundtrack artist Erykah Badu.

Who Was There: Attending from the film were director Lemmons, Jackson, Whitfield, Morgan, Hall, Good and Smollett. Other guests included Shari Belafonte, Elizabeth Perkins, “Soul Food’s” Brandon Hammond and a smattering of TV personalities.

Why We’re Here: The occasion was a benefit for the House of Blues Foundation programs for African American music and art in schools. “Our concern is about our cultural legacy and continuing it,” said foundation president Carol Adams. “We want to make sure kids learn about the folk art, the music, where it came from, how to continue it and what to do. As schools cut out these things, it’s important for us to keep it going.” Tickets were $150 apiece. About $75,000 was collected for the charity.

Chow and Entertainment: Guests munched on such House of Blues soul snacks as crab cakes, catfish bites and creole chicken tenders before sitting down to a buffet dinner of shrimp, red beans and rice, corn bread and, well, you get the idea. A surprise addition to platinum soul artist Badu’s performance was Smollett’s stunning a cappella rendition of Lena Horne’s “Yesterday.”

Quoted: “I want people to look at this as kind of a new genre--African American Southern gothic melodrama,” said director Lemmons, who also wrote the script. “I’d like them to look at it and say, ‘This is something completely different.’ ”