DVD Review: Trouble the Water
‘When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts’ is the definitive documentary on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. But while Spike Lee’s gut-wrenching film focuses on the government’s inept response to the tragedy, other stories need to be told.
Trouble the Water opens with home video footage filmed on 28 August 2005, the day before the hurricane hit, by aspiring rapper Kimberly River Roberts and her husband Scott. Residents of the 9th Ward in New Orleans, they can’t afford to leave. In a move deemed cynical by some, Kimberley buys a camera and starts filming the neighbourhood, while waiting for the storm to pass. Along with family and friends, they find refuge in a building before being rescued. In the rest of the film, Michael Moore’s producers – Carl Deal and Tia Lessin – pick up the cameras and follow Kimberly and Scott as they try to rebuild their lives. They leave New Orleans for Tennessee where they have family but soon realise that home is in the 9th Ward. So they go back and face the devastation: the demolished houses and the authorities more preoccupied with sustaining tourism in the French Quarter than rebuilding the city.
Kimberley and Scott’s escape from and return to New Orleans is a journey filled with many lessons, on resilience, redemption and new beginnings. Both street hustlers before the tragedy, Kimberly and Scott become heroes, showing incredible courage and empathy during and after the storm, rescuing as many people as they can. Though many have died – a grandmother, an uncle, people next door… – they have been reborn: Kimberley’s lyrics have a deeper meaning while Scott is learning a new trade and helping rebuild the area. Truly an amazing and uplifting story.
