Trouble the Water
Shocking Katrina Documentary Created from
Real-Time, Home Movies Shot by Storm Victim
Trouble the
Water
Unrated
Running time: 96 minutes
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
35mm
2008
Film Review by
Kam Williams
Excellent (4 stars)
On August 28, 2005, with Hurricane Katrina bearing down on the
New Orleans, Scott and Kimberly Rivers Roberts made the fateful
decision to weather the storm instead of evacuate. Armed with a
video camera, Kim started wandering around their Lower Ninth
Ward neighborhood, interviewing friends and relatives who had
also chosen to stay in the city.
It is readily apparent from watching the pre-landfall footage
that none of them anticipated the dire struggle for survival
which was about to unfold. Not only did they expect the levees
to hold like they had for every storm since the Great Flood of
1927, but they had no reason to suspect they’d be utterly
abandoned by local, state and federal authorities in the event
of a massive natural disaster.
Kim Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts meet the
filmmakers for the first time in TROUBLE THE WATER
But as we all know, that’s precisely what happened, and thousands of suddenly-homeless citizens ended up stranded for days on end without any sustenance. They were forced to fend for themselves during a triple-digit heat wave, while awaiting the proverbial cavalry which never arrived.
Trouble the Water is an eye-opening documentary, which
enables the audience to be a fly on the crumbling levee walls as
Kim and her husband shift from carefree observers into survival
mode. In virtually the blink of an eye, the atmosphere goes from
ominous to desperate as the water level rises so precipitously
that no one has a chance to make a dash for higher ground on
foot.
Although the Roberts lived to tell the tale, the same can't be
said for all the subjects of their home movie. For example, the
camera captures the shock and dismay in their eyes two weeks
after the hurricane passed, when they enter the house of Kim’s
uncle, who had been interviewed earlier, only to find his
decomposing corpse lying in the living room. Other horror
stories follow, such as the sight of an acquaintance’s aging
mother whose body had been left behind with dozens of other
patients in a hospital now turned morgue.
Also effectively chronicled is the constant frustration the
couple encountered in dealing with FEMA bureaucrats who had the
nerve to ask for documents obviously washed away. No wonder so
many of the victims ended up broke, depressed, unemployed and no
longer able to trust their own government.
There’s a telling scene towards the end of the picture, where a
woman talks about how she’s counseled her son who wants to enter
the military. ’you're not going to fight for a country that
doesn't give a damn about you,’ she declares matter-of-factly.
’No way!’
Raw, unfiltered and expletive-laced, but a brutally-honest flick
guaranteed to give you an un sanitized picture of what life was
like for the least fortunate folks in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina.
Scott Roberts, Kim Rivers Roberts, Carl Deal, Tia Lessin and
Danny Glover (Executive Producer) at the Harlem, NY Premier
August 22nd 2008
Photo Credit AALBC.com
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