 |
 |
HBO: There were many harrowing images and stories that emerged in the aftermath of
Katrina. What were you looking to bring to this story that was different?
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: Like most people who were watching the events on television, we were struggling to
make sense of what we were seeing. 100,000 people abandoned in their own city after the
levees broke, waiting for a rescue that wasn't coming. It was appalling. If the news media
could get their trucks into New Orleans the day after Katrina, why couldn't FEMA?
Many journalists were asking those questions and challenging the Bush Administration in
ways we hadn't seen from the mainstream media in the previous five years. But there
were also those exaggerated and false reports of widespread looting and murderous mobs
roaming the streets of New Orleans, reports which seemed to run on a continuous loop on
some networks. The reality on the ground was far from that.
When we arrived in Louisiana a week after the levees failed, we wanted to tell a different
story. We didn't want to deliver information, but instead take an audience on an
emotional journey. Kimberly and Scott Roberts' story of survival gave us a window in,
an opportunity to add to the conversation about race and poverty that had been forced
into the national dialogue.
And by incorporating fifteen minutes of the heart-stopping direct first-hand home video
shot by Kimberly the day before and the day of the storm, we were able to ground the
story with jarring, unforgettable images unlike anything the news media was showing at
the time.
But Trouble the Water doesn't begin and end with the breached levees, the botched
evacuation, and government's inept response. We followed this story for two years after
the national media left the region, and so were able to tell a much deeper and intensely
personal story.
HBO: Where did you meet your subjects, Kimberly and Scott, and what was it about
them that captured your attention?
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: Kimberly and Scott Roberts approached us about ten days after the levees failed. We
were all in Central Louisiana at a Red Cross Shelter. They were just at the beginning of
their post-Katrina journey, and we had just been shut down by the military after filming
several days with Louisiana National Guard soldiers returning home from Baghdad.
The Roberts and their friend Brian thoroughly defied the stereotypes we were seeing on
TV at that time - the depictions of New Orleans' African American residents as either
rampaging criminals or helpless victims. While victimized by a ferocious storm and an
incompetent, if not indifferent, government response, Kimberly and Scott never acted like
victims. And though they were self-described street hustlers, they were not criminals
either. They were straight up survivors who were there when their neighbors needed
them, and they were embarking on a journey to transform their lives. They expressed a
lot of hope and optimism, emotions that often seemed at odds with what was happening
on the ground. We wanted to see how it would turn out for them, and felt that an audience
would too.
We filmed with them on and off for two years. Kimberly and Scott were honest in the
way they exposed themselves to us, asking only that in making the film, we keep it real
and not sanitize the story. And by sticking close to their journey, we were able to distill
so much into one story -- the abandonment of the city's poorest, the incarcerated, and the
hospitalized to Katrina's floodwaters, and the government's failures well before, during
and after the storm.
HBO: It's clear to all in the aftermath of Katrina that the government failed its citizens.
What were the key events that occurred during filming that brought that home for you
both?
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: We had arrived in the disaster zone with our crew looking for answers: Why were a
hundred thousand poor residents stranded in New Orleans before the storm? And why
was help so late in coming after the levees collapsed? "We've got a job to defend this
country in the war on terror," President Bush had told the nation, "and we've got a job to
bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, and we'll do both."
Well, clearly, Bush did not do both. In fact, most of the Louisiana National Guard was in
Baghdad when Katrina made landfall and it was ten days before many of them were
allowed to return home. We were there when those soldiers finally arrived and we filmed
those bittersweet homecomings. Until we were shut down. "Fahrenheit 9/11 screwed it up
for all you guys," said an officer, apparently not knowing that she was addressing two of
that film's producers.
Later that week we found ourselves standing in the shadow of the enormous U.S. Naval
station in the 9th Ward. Scott recounted how, after the levees broke, he and hundreds of
other residents who were seeking shelter in the empty barracks there were turned away at
gunpoint by soldiers. A couple of days earlier in New Orleans, a soldier whose brigade
had recently taken up residence at Kimberly and Scott's former high school remarked,
"No offense against civilian people, but they have no concept of how to survive." These
two scenes underscored for us the massive gulf between the authorities and the people
they are supposed to serve.
Then there were the 911 calls. We had unearthed hours of them, recorded during the first
days of the flooding. Listening to them was almost unbearable. One elderly woman
stranded in her attic pleads for help, with floodwaters rising in her house and the operator
can only suggest that she break a hole in her attic. It's devastating. The woman quietly
replies, "So I'm gonna die." Our collaborator and editor Woody Richman set an audio
montage of these calls to images shot from the Roberts' attic, with a chilling result: The
old woman's voice conjures the nearly two thousand people who lost their lives in New
Orleans after the levees failed.
And each return visit to New Orleans over the past three years brings it home all over
again. One afternoon we filmed at a public housing complex that was boarded up and
surrounded by a chain link fence -- hundreds of vacant apartments in an area that hadn't
even flooded. A few blocks away, hundreds of homeless people were sleeping under the
interstate. By our next visit, this livable housing had been demolished. But the homeless
were still there.
It's important to remember that the government failures began long before the levees
broke. We recently learned that the high school we had filmed in during the aftermath of
Katrina - the high school that Kimberly and Scott attended -- has the worst academic
record in the state. It's been part of the city's "Recovery School District" since 1991; but
its "recovery" is not from Katrina, but from white flight and decades of underfunding and
neglect. That speaks volumes.
HBO: The concepts of rebuilding and overcoming disaster become metaphors in the film
for both the city of New Orleans and for Kimberly and Scott. One of the most arresting
instances of this is when Kimberly sings a rap song directly into camera which reveals so
much about her and her past. What was it like capturing that moment?
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: It was a truly magical moment in Memphis when Kimberly, aka Blackkoldmadina,
discovers the music she thought was lost in the flood. Her spontaneous performance of
the autobiographical song, "Amazing" reveals her talent as a rapper in a performance that
Rolling Stone magazine says has her "destined for stardom." She delivers an explosive
and vivid personal narrative of how she survived a childhood surrounded by poverty,
violence and neglect. It's the ultimate self-affirmation as she defiantly raps, "I don't need
YOU to tell me that I'm amazing."
We were just speechless as we captured the scene and Kimberly's interaction with
cinematographer PJ Raval and his camera is riveting and emotional. We hope it leaves
the audience as breathless and inspired as we felt in that moment.
HBO: What kind of reactions have you gotten from Katrina survivors?
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: Every time we screen the film in person, we're approached by survivors - poor and
affluent, white and black -- who tell us the ways in which the film speaks to them. And
we receive emails almost daily from survivors sharing their stories and their responses to
the film.
You can read some of the personal stories that survivors have sent us on our website.
Organizations on the forefront of advocating for Katrina survivors, such as The Louisiana
Disaster Recovery Foundation, UNITY New Orleans, PolicyLink, Advocates for
Environmental Human Rights, Amnesty International and many others are using Trouble
the Water as an organizing tool.
But Trouble the Water is not just about Katrina, it's a triumphant story about navigating
through hard times, through storms big and small, natural and man-made, and these are
hard times for so many right now, not only along the Gulf Coast but throughout the
country. We think that's why the film will resonate with millions more when they see it
on HBO.
HBO: What can citizens do in response to the issues raised in the film?
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: **Tell Congress to take action to repair the communities that were destroyed. This
problem is bigger than just Hurricane Katrina, so we need real legislative action to make
a difference.
****Share your story about why the gulf coast matters to you and how "Trouble the Water"
touched you.
**Find an organization to support along the Gulf Coast or in your own community.
** Host a screening of Trouble the Water for your faith group, school, or community
group: and discuss the issues
afterwards and make the connections between the needs along the Gulf Coast and in your
own community.
|
|
|
|
|
