EXPLORING `EVE'S BAYOU'.

Byline: Renee Graham Boston Globe

There are ample stories in the languid rhythms of the deep South, stories that unfurl like hymns in mournful, passionate song.

In this place, Kasi Lemmons imagined the wail of Etta James's heartbreak, the nasty bark of Bobby ``Blue'' Bland spilling from a record player in a room gay with laughter, loose talk, and slow grinds against a wall drenched in blue light. From this image, Lemmons created ``Eve's Bayou,'' a haunting, lyrical film set in 1960s Louisiana. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, and Diahann Carroll, the film, which opens Friday, is a bayou gothic of family and mysticism evoking the works of Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston. It is a singularly Southern tale written and directed by Lemmons, a first-time filmmaker who has a profound affinity for the South, although she was raised in Newton, Mass.

Born in St. Louis, Lemmons moved to Newton when she was 9, but she describes her family as ``deeply, deeply Southern.'' Her mother is from Americus, Ga., and her father grew up in Louisiana and Birmingham, Ala. Lemmons, who lives in Los Angeles, spent many summers at her grandmother's rural home in Tuskegee, Ala. Imagining the South and creating the fictional Batiste family of ``Eve's Bayou'' was not difficult for Lemmons, although the film is not autobiographical.

``When you make up characters, there are always pieces of people you know,'' said Lemmons, who admitted ``there's definitely a lot'' of her in Eve.

The story, reminiscent of an August Wilson play, revolves around two sisters, Cisely (Meagan Good) and Eve (Jurnee Smollett), and the tragic events leading to the death of their father, Louis, a charming womanizer, played by Jackson. Whitfield is the girls' long-suffering mother, Roz, and Morgan is her sister-in-law, Mozelle. The still-stunning Carroll is almost unrecognizable as a backwoods voodoo woman, Elzora.

The Batiste family is an anomaly in American film - a black aristocracy. Louis is a successful doctor, and his family lives in splendor. Throughout the nation, there are ``these proud old black families with their cotillions, and all that,'' Lemmons said.

Into the director's chair

For a debut film, Lemmons assembled an impressive cast, including her husband, Vondie Curtis-Hall, best known for his co-starring role as Dr. Dennis Hancock on ``Chicago Hope.''

``It's great directing my husband because he's one of my favorite actors. He's so talented,'' Lemmons said.

But it was not Lemmons' original intention to direct the film. She considered respected actors, such as Morgan Freeman, who might want to make the leap to the director's chair. When that didn't pan out, Lemmons began to think she would accept the challenge.

``I woke up one day and thought, `I went to film school, I wrote the script. Why shouldn't I direct it?' I had the script. I never optioned it. I owned it, and I had Sam, (Samuel L. Jackson)'' she said. ``It was, like, if you want Sam and you want the script, you have to take me. The script was not for sale without me attached.''

Jackson, who is also the film's executive producer, was the first to sign on. In fact, the most difficult part to cast was the child who would play Eve, the film's narrator. Lemmons wanted ``a dusty little kid, an earthy little kid, an authentic bayou girl,'' and the search took her throughout the South. Mostly, she found fresh-faced children with sitcom spunkiness.

``I was pulling out my hair saying, `Don't you understand, I need Anna Paquin, I need a brilliant actress.' It was this weird feeling of knowing she was out there but not having her,'' she said. ``I started to get shaken by it, but I was so confident, I was only shaken for a day or two.

Her perfect Eve

Through her casting director, Jaki Brown-Karman, Lemmons finally found Smollett in Los Angeles. Although the 10-year-old had appeared in only one other feature (``Jack,'' with Robin Williams), within five minutes Lemmons knew she had found her perfect Eve.

Still, having Jackson, an Academy Award-nominated actor, linked to the film gave it ``a kind of clout, a weight. I could go into a roomful of executives, and even if Sam wasn't there, I had the spirit of Sam there with me,'' Lemmons said.

Not that this was entirely altruistic on Jackson's part. In his varied career, which has included roles as the Jheri-curled hit man of ``Pulp Fiction,'' and the revenge-bent father of ``A Time to Kill,'' Jackson has never had the opportunity to play a sexy leading man until ``Eve's Bayou.''

``I think he was interested in helping out the film, but he was also interested in playing that character,'' Lemmons said. ``It's hard for black men in white movies to get those roles.''

Nor is it any easier for African-American women, a reality Lemmons experienced firsthand. She began her career as an actress, perhaps best remembered as Jodie Foster's FBI academy pal in ``The Silence of the Lambs.

Even on a dreary, drizzly morning, Lemmons is a natural beauty. Shoulder-length blond dreadlocks frame expressive brown eyes and an engaging, infectious smile. It is a graceful face that should have done well in front of the camera, except for the dearth of decent roles for African-American actresses. Lemmons has not given up on acting, but is enthralled by directing, which she called ``the most fulfilling thing I've done other than have a baby.'' She shot the $4 million film in 37 days, through blistering hot bayou days and nights, and insects and tarantulas the size of compact cars. (There was even a spider wrangler on the set.)

The film, which has received early positive buzz, is getting even more attention because of the success of ``Soul Food.'' That film shifted the focus of so-called ``black films'' from hip-hop sex comedies to family dramas. ``Eve's Bayou'' is a family drama, although it is far more intense than ``Soul Food.''

Still, Lemmons knows any film with a predominantly African-American cast is instantly branded ``a black film,'' a label that can keep away white moviegoers. She said it would be a shame if her film didn't find a crossover audience, but added, ``I'm just glad it got made, so I don't think I'll be howlingly disappointed if it doesn't cross over.''

``What `Soul Food' teaches us is that black people want to come out for a movie that's good and different, so I'm encouraged. ... I want the black audience because they need this. White audiences get all kinds of different films, and black audiences should be offered the same.''

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Photo: ``When you make up characters, there are always pieces of people you know,'' says first-time filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, who wrote and directed ``Eve's Bayou,'' which is set in 1960s Louisiana.