Trouble the Water

That this could happen in America is a crime of such a magnitude that no words coming from the Bush administration could ever erase the shame. An amateur rented a camera and her video is supplemented by profession work in this Oscar nominated and Sundance award winning film.

The fact that we had rapid response to the storms that hit Texas afterwards does not negate what happened in Louisiana. This short film brings home the crime that was committed upon this city and it's residents.

Navy personnel aiming M-16s at a crowd of survivors just looking for a warm and dry place to sleep is indicative of the lack of care the government displayed in the aftermath of Katrina. "Get off our property or we're gonna start shooting." Excellent film about some people got their lives together on their own.

Hurricane Katrina 2005. The ravage of New Orleans. The flooding of the ninth ward. A couple who did not evacuate tells a story of survival and the consequences.

The couple in question is the subject of this documentary. It blends newsreels and footage taken by the couple and the directors. It's not polished, but it's real.

We see amateur shots of the period immediately preceding the arrival of the hurricane, the storm itself, the rising water, the flood aftermath. The couple moves out of New Orleans not intent in coming back. Eventually they do come back and rebuild.

The problem with this documentary is that the exciting part comes at the start. As it gathers distance from the tragic events, it loses steam and eventually becomes borderline boring.

The most pointed line, said by a mother to her son as regard the occupation of Iraq: "You're not going to fight for a country that does not give a damn about you."

There's quite of bit of rap composed by the wife. If you like rap, it's pretty good.

Wow. This is absolutely the best documentary I've seen in years, and hands-down most engaging and relevant piece I have seen on the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. It is outstanding: funny, tragic, sharp and smart. Kim simply steals the show, even she's videotaping and you can't even see her, you can only hear her voice from behind the camera. The film is centered around Kim's footage of the hurricane and her life. She is a gifted storyteller and also quite a good rapper. When I saw the film, the theater burst out into spontaneous applause after she performed one of her songs in its entirety on film; in the Q&A, the directors' said that had happened every single time it's been screened.

Everyone saw footage of Hurricane Katrina on the news. Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" dealt extensively with the storm and the lack of response. "Trouble the Water" consists mostly of camcorder footage shot by New Orleans resident Kimberly Roberts before during and after the storm. Partly about the hurricane, the documentary also poses the question of what America is supposed to be all about if it lets this happen to thousands of people, most of them poor and black.

Hurricane Katrina, like the September 11 attacks (whose tenth anniversary is in a few days), is something that should always be remembered, maybe more so. It showed how detached the government had become from its most vulnerable citizens. The collapse of the levees and subsequent flooding of the Lower Ninth Ward became an excuse to dismantle New Orleans's public school system and replace it with vouchers. The documentary is even more relevant now, after Louisiana got a second strike in the form of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Back in 2005, when Kimberly Roberts,a up & coming rapper from the 9th Ward in New Orleans first heard of what was going to be a major hurricane in her neck of the woods,she got her hands on a used video camera from a street hustler,looking to make a quick buck & started to record anything & everything she saw (with the assistance of her husband,Scott). Four days later,her world,as she knew it,drowned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Documentary film makers Carl Deal & Tia Lessin (who had worked on 'Fahrenheit 9/11',etc.)were in New Orleans,filming all of the mass mayhem & became acquainted with the Roberts' & offered to use their crude,clumsy,kitchen sink video footage as part of their documentary film project. The results of this collaboration is 'Trouble The Water' (the title of a Gospel song that is heard on the soundtrack). This powerful film is cinema verite at it's best. It easily takes it's place among recently released documentaries on Katrina ('Camp Katrina',etc.). This documentary is produced by HBO,which means that it will probably turn up there some time later for those who missed the opportunity to see it in cinemas. No rating,but contains vulgar language & some disturbing sights & sounds.