One of the most amazing, moving and important films that has been made about Hurricane Katrina is the documentary Trouble the Water. Filmmakers Tia Lessen and Carl Deal who produced Farenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine made this film, about New Orleanians and Ninth Ward residents, Scott and Kimberly Roberts. The film was an Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature.
What’s so compelling about this film is that it confronts the official story of the storm so directly—like Rukeyser’s poem does with the disaster of Gauley Bridge. It shows, as poet Rita Dove has said of her own work, “the underside of the story.” The Roberts were in the Ninth Ward during Katrina and began to take their own footage of the storm then.
Read their story and see the trailer here
The website lists screenings state by state. A DVD is forthcoming for consumer use, though an institutional use DVD can be ordered from the site.
