Reviews

Trouble the Water

A raw and emotional look at Hurricane Katrina

By PETER KEOUGH | September 11, 2008

3.0 Stars

trouble_in

Given the far less damaging path of Gustav last week, those with short memories might be wondering whether Katrina was such a big deal after all. They can refer to one more terrific documentary to set themselves straight. Providing the personal focus complementing the epic sweep of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin make generous use of videos shot by their subjects, New Orleans Ninth Ward residents Kim Roberts and her husband, Scott, before, during, and after the disaster. The direct, artless footage conjures a real-world Cloverfield, except with people who are resourceful and worth caring about. When Deal and Lessin, who’ve produced Michael Moore documentaries, step in, a certain glibness does overtake the eloquence of raw experience and emotion. Nonetheless, the Robertses’ story prevails, as does their courage over the indifference of nature and the government. 93 minutes | Kendall Square

Related: Earthquake!, Looking back to climb forward, On street level, More

Earthquake!
Picture buildings from Southie to West Somerville reduced to rubble. Dozens of three-alarm fires all over town. Tunnels flooded with seawater.
Looking back to climb forward
It's been four years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Its causes and ramifications, though, extend much farther into both the past and the future. So say Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman, Brooklyn-based spoken-word and multimedia artists known together as Climbing Poetree.
On street level
It is impossible not to wonder how Louisiana might have fared after Hurricane Katrina, had Barack Obama been in office a term sooner. There are so many questions about what went wrong and how it could have been handled differently, which have gone unanswered for more than three years.
Dam shame
In a few weeks, the country will remember one of the greatest disasters in its history.
11. Bobby Jindal
In delivering the Republican response to Barack Obama’s first joint-houses speech as president in February, the governor of Louisiana and erstwhile 2012 presidential hopeful was deemed a resounding flop — by members of his own party. His lack of charisma and gee-whiz oratory (as well as his dorkiness) quickly drew unfavorable comparisons to Kenneth the Page from NBC’s 30 Rock , whose political career now seems to have a higher trajectory than Jindal’s. Bonus hurricane-chutzpah points for bringing up Katrina in his speech criticizing government-funded economic-relief programs, for which his state took in billions of federal dough.
Water, benign and fierce
In Onne van der Wal's sailing photos, it seems the weather is always balmy and the golden sun always setting. The Jamestown resident's exhibit at Moses Brown School's Krause Gallery (250 Lloyd Avenue, Providence, through October 2) depicts a world that's forever at its endless summer, can't-get-any-better-than-this peak.
Mississippi blues
Ever wonder what became of all the tax dollars and personal donations you sent to the Gulf Coast over the past year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? Slideshow: Annie Card photographs the survivors and wreckage of Hurricane Katrina.
Don’t look back in anger
These days, New Orleans residents are “drinking a lot and cussing a lot,” says Hurricane Katrina survivor Don Vavasseur. “The lexicon down here has gotten pretty raunchy. And people I’ve known for a long time, who have never really drank, are drinking a lot more.”
Year in Film: Risky business
Every year the studios hold back their best until the end of the year, but this year they let us down.
Apartheid, Bush style
More pitiable than being a Democrat in President George W. Bush’s America is to be an African-American Democrat.
Crescent City queen
It’s a little more than a year since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and Irma Thomas’s life, like those of most residents of the city, has yet to return to normal.
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Topics: Reviews , Accidents and Disasters, Hurricanes and Cyclones, Natural Disasters, More

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