Trouble the Water

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.