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The Laffite Project A Hix Brothers Documentary Series By Peggy ‘Domino’ Taylor At the recent City of Seabrook 50th Anniversary Festival an interesting booth received a lot of attention; the booth was the Hix brothers sharing the findings from The Laffite Project, a documentary on the real Jean Laffite, following the family to current. If you are into pirates, you will love it, even if one is not that into pirates, one will still enjoy the historic findings and the educational road to tracing the famous pirate’s family tree and the diligence of following every clue like detectives. In the age where genealogy is more common now and people are researching bloodlines as a new hobby. There are TV series, specials with celebrities and websites that are dedicated to tracing one’s heritage for centuries which proves most of society is curious where they come from and love legends. When the Hix brothers share their Year1800 documents from their family members and other museums and galleries about the ancestor with a possible, alias: Jean Laffite, one is hooked. The Laffite Project is their study of the real Jean Laffite, the famed pirate and following their own heritage from 200 years ago that follow their ancestors who where privateers in the 1800s. This documentary in process is by brothers Charles Hix and Cody Hix with their cousin Jay Hix Jones. Jay is a TV producer working with co-creator Tyler Townsend developing this document from the research. Jay is the associate producer of several TV series, including “1000 Ways To Die” for Original Productions, the production company for the popular “Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers.” Jay pitched them The Laffite Project. Jay also just picked up a new gig producing “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Actor John Schneider got on board in a “through the grapevine” way and the documentary producing took off since the project was already in a development process. Charles Hix, a chiropractor and college professor and Cody Hix, a scuba instructor and adventurer are conducting this extensive research into the truth behind the legendary pirate, while uncovering paintings and records showing highly favorable signs this could be their relative.
Cody and Charles share the family legend passed down to them from through their great-grandmother. It’s been in their family for two hundred years. The Hix brothers’ mom and Jay’s mom fully support them in this family project as they man the booth, sharing with visitors who stop to hear the family legend and learn about the documentary filming. Cody stated, “We’ve heard the story that our ancestors were privateers from New Orleans, and they used an alias to hide their true identity to protect their family. That is what made us jump on this project.” All three of the Hix family knew they needed to do this project on Laffite, that is when Jay pitched it as a reality documentary about the search for pirate ancestors. The beginning started with viewing all family documents that were passed down and with a trips to New Orleans doing research that will amaze viewers as a possible new addition to history unfolding. Charles added that one of the discoveries that led to others, was that Laffite was an alias and possibly his name was Autheman, same as their privateer ancestor. They are not disputing history, but filling in the blanks with more research about Jean and his brother Pierre Laffite. Cody adds, “We will follow this project to the very end, but if our story handed down for generations turns out to not be true, we will be alright with it and we made a great documentary about knowing the real truth on Laffite and to have questions answered that have been lingering over the Hix family for 200 years.” This project is three years old and after bouncing around partnering with a network, they are going to fund it independently through investors to keep all editorial control. They are also looking for more investors . They have a supportive and working family behind them and actor John Schneider on board plus the history of successfully produced series under their belt; it seems like a great start. To learn more about the project and keep up with filming process of this series, reading about their discoveries as history unfolds bit by bit, follow them on Facebook.com/thelaffiteproject. Donations on this project are accepted by the purchase of a (cool looking) Laffite Project T-shirt, visit www.thelaffiteproject.com.
THE SCENE
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NOVEMBER 2011