Trouble the Water

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.

The story of the U.S. government's response to hurricane Katrina remains shocking at many levels: the poor quality of the flood defences, the complete inadequacy of plans for evacuation, recovery and regeneration; and above all else, the overwhelming sense that at heart, no-one cared because most of those affected were poor and black. The ground has been covered extensively by Spike Lee in his magisterial film 'When the Levees Broke'; 'Trouble the Water' is a more personal account, a video diary shot by a resident during and after the storm. But it still contains plenty of gruesome insights: the failure to evacuate the hospitals and prisons, and the protection of higher ground from homeless citizens by the armed forces of the U.S. navy, are the most terrible details. The film also depicts the huge burden of trying to rebuild a life that has been completely swept away. As a piece of pure cinema, it's limited; but it's a story that needs to be told and re-told until something is eventually done. Nothing we see gives us confidence that next time, it really will be different, and the citizens of New Orleans will get the first-world treatment that America could surely afford to give them, if only it cared.

A must-see documentary for anyone interested in the suppression of the poor in the United States. What went down in New Orleans was something even the corporate media had a hard time hiding. FOX News was reporting on Hurricane Katrina and saying the place looked like the 3rd world. The images were startling on the US news, but there was still the undertones of profit. "How will this affect gasoline prices?" Julie Chen asks on the CBS morning show after showing footage of all the homeless blacks.

This is the story as told by the people themselves, not by Anderson Cooper or anyone else. This is how the story should be told because these are the people who lived with it. It's not even a story anyone in uniform could tell because they were part of the problem in New Orleans.

One scene of this documentary allows the locals to narrate how they tried to go to a local Navy base in New Orleans which had been evacuated before the storm. It was empty and it had housing for people which wasn't being used. The National Guard who were protecting the building cocked and loaded M-16s and pointed them at the crowd. Nope, these aren't the stories you hear about on CNN.

You won't hear the story about a man in prison for a misdemeanour before the storm hit either. The television was taken away by the guards before footage of the storm was on the air, when the prisoners finally heard that there was a hurricane outside, they were denied food and most of the guards left.

This is a very good documentary, and an important one because it shows the failings of government. The government doesn't fail everyone, it takes very good care of the rich and businesses, which recovered quicker than anyone else in New Orleans. The government failures are biased towards the poor and visual minorities and this doc. pretty much confirms that thesis.

Four years on and not much has changed in the 9th ward, but the casino is open and the tourism department is showing a flashy video urging people to come to New Orleans. The poor black people aren't around any more, except when they're working for minimum wage. The rest have been displaced from the city where they lived but no longer trust to live in anymore.

Katrina is just one of the legacies of the Bush administration and perhaps a strong indication that the US is a country whose power is in decline. What can you possibly say about a country which won't even help its weakest and most destitute citizen? It sucks.

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.

A worthwhile trip through the disturbing events of Katrina, an honest film, even if on occasion not so subtly directing its viewers towards particular and easily-held opinions.

There are several striking images in the film, including a recording of a 911 call in which an woman requesting help can't get out of her attic which is flooding. The 911 attendant has to inform her that there is no help at this time, and the victim replies, "So I'm going to die?" Silence on the other end of the line.

It seems like the majority of the film is snatched from the video camera of a survivor, as such the footage can be, well, not professional, but in the end it doesn't matter, perhaps even adding to the realism. It turns out that the couple filming is a set of intriguing characters with admirable qualities. They are from the ninth ward, a poor section of New Orleans hit hardest by the storm, yet for those of us without that much contact with society's underbelly or the semi-destitute, they will probably surprise you with their values, intelligence, resolve and resourcefulness.

The strength of the film for me was not in any attempts at blame or inciting anger at a lack of assistance and the seeming complacency of leadership, but in a reflection on the human struggle, manifested through an inspiring family, and in a basic reminder to examine, nourish, and befriend your own community.