Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke

TELEVISION Specific Shows
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When the Levees Broke is Spike Lee’s documentary about Katrina and the aftermath which he filmed I believe late last year and soem early this year. The doumentary will be shown in two parts on HBO on Aug 21 and 22. The entire documentary will be shown on the anniversary of Katrina hitting on Aug 29th (the documentary is four hour long parts).

There is a free premiere happening here in New Orleans at the New Orleans Arena. They gave out free tickets. Yes, I will be there. Wondering if anyone else is coming down, also?

I am interested to see how this goes. I know some people who worked on it and there are still a lot of raw emotions even a year after the storm. I have heard it said by more than one person that it wil take anywhere from 4 - 10 years before there is any real semblance of normalcy.

I am also hoping the documentary takes in all the effects of the storm, and not just New Orleans. As far north as Jackson, Mississippi there was a lot of damage and a lot of mismanagement. New Orleans isn’t even the worst hit parish in the state of Louisiana.

You can find out some more info from the Times-Picayune:

[http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/walke…1…amp;coll=1](http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/walker/index.ssf?/base/living-0/115475707732150.xml&coll=1)

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Does anyone know the political angle this film is taking regarding the Bush administration?

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cant wait to see this in a few weeks. great article about it in the NY Times Mag last weekend as well.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by fabfunk Does anyone know the political angle this film is taking regarding the Bush administration?

Haven’t you heard? Bush hates black people.

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Is that really how you want to start this thread? I’m really looking forward to sseing this, and i’m glad that Spike was the one who filmed it, he did an excellent job on 4 Little Girls.

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I’m looking forward to seeing Spike Lee make angry cinema again. I miss it.

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I have heard a couple of things as far as the political angle goes. The first was that the doc showed the complete and collosal screw up the whole situation was from local leaders through the national leaders. But, lately, I have been hearing it does take the feds to task more.

Who knows.

I will be at the free screening, so I will let you know how it is.

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Official site:
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whentheleveesbroke/

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I remember him talking about this on Real Time With Bill Maher last year. He wasn’t really selling anybody.

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Being a New Orleanian, I’m glad this type of film is being made, but I’m also very skeptical. If they even give the levees “exploding” thing an ounce of credibility, I’ll probably go apeshit.

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Well, it looks like Lee is going to disappoint and only tell one part of the story. A review from today’s Times-Picayune:

*Dave Walker

The word other critics likely will use most to describe Spike Lee’s Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO is “wrenching.”

My word is “unfinished,” even at four hours.

“When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” locks in on the black Katrina experience, which should not come as a surprise to anybody who knows Lee’s filmmaking career.

As such, “Levees” tells only half the story. Or, rather, 67.3 percent of it.

Frequently brilliantly, but still.

The tragic story of black New Orleans trapped in Katrina’s path has found a supreme chronicler, but the flooded-out residents of Lakeview or Old Metairie who attend tonight’s sold-out premiere at New Orleans Arena will spend all night sitting on a hard plastic chair and then wonder: Where am I in this?*

You can read the whole thing here:

[http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa…7…amp;coll=1](http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1155709695219710.xml&coll=1)

It is a shame to me that Lee did not try and be more inclusive. Katrina really did rip through and destroy many lives of many races.

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Is that really a valid gripe? Lee specifically set out to document the BLACK experience. I know people of all races were devastated from the storm, but that’s not what this documentary is trying to achieve.

As for the political bent, the Entertainment Weekly article said Lee was pretty even handed, presenting all sides of the issue. Lee said that wasn’t what he was going for. He is extremely angry with the Bush administration and its lack of response.

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Um yeah, it is a pretty legitimate gripe. The name of the documentary is When the Levees Broke, not the Black Experience During Katrina. The levees breaking effected whites, blacks, asians, and others. The 17th Street canal break destroyed a predominantly white area of the city. A lot of the flooding from the levees not holding in New Orleans East effected a lot of Asian families.

So it is a legitimate gripe.

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Anyone going into a Spike Lee film should know what they are getting. Complaining that the white experience wasn’t captured is dumb. There’s no denying that race was THE issue of debate regarding the federal response to this tragedy. And according to HBO’s website, that slow response is the focus of the film:

Quote:
As the world watched in horror, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, director Spike Lee was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster,but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. Lee was moved to document this modern American tragedy, a morality play witnessed by people all around the world.
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It’s not Lee’s responsibility to cover every angle of every story in every area of the disaster. He set out to make a specific film. It’s a ridiculous gripe, especially from anyone with even a cursory familiarity with Spike Lee movies. And the title has nothing to do with it. It’s like saying that Murderball unfairly failed to mention other disabled sports.

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It is legitimate criticism, at least for people from here. We know what happened, and we know the geography of the area.

It almost sends me into apoplexy to think he made a 4 hour “documentary” about Katrina and completely left out Lakeview and St. Bernard Parish, 2 predominantly white areas that were densely populated and were completely wiped out. Many of my friends lost everything, and my ex-girlfriend lost 2 great-uncles who staid at home in Lakeview, and both died. I know a man who came back 3 weeks after the storm, was separated from his father, and found him dead in his attic.

This thing had huge repercussions, and to only focus on one race is not a documentary, but some kind of agenda.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Sutton It is legitimate criticism, at least for people from here. We know what happened, and we know the geography of the area. It almost sends me into apoplexy to think he made a 4 hour “documentary” about Katrina and completely left out Lakeview and St. Bernard Parish, 2 predominantly white areas that were densely populated and were completely wiped out. Many of my friends lost everything, and my ex-girlfriend lost 2 great-uncles who staid at home in Lakeview, and both died. I know a man who came back 3 weeks after the storm, was separated from his father, and found him dead in his attic. This thing had huge repercussions, and to only focus on one race is not a documentary, but some kind of agenda.

It’s a documentary focused on one subject. The affects Katrina and the ill response of the government had on the black community of New Orleans. Just like the countless Holocaust docs that focus on its affect on Jews and not of the gypsies, homosexuals, mentally retarded etc..

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Sutton This thing had huge repercussions, and to only focus on one race is not a documentary, but some kind of agenda.

Oh god, this again.

Look, do you know how many documentaries have an agenda? The correct answer is “all of them”. Documentaries are not news. They put forth an opinion, and then make a case for that opinion. They are not impartial, and they are not objective. Never have been, never will be; that’s not their job. Spike Lee set out to make a film about a specific aspect of the Katrina disaster. Criticizing him for not moving outside the scope of his intent is foolish.

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No, documentaries are not supposed to be objective. But having token reps from St. Benard, Lakeview, and the Coast means he was trying to reach beyond one specific point and demographic. And he failed.

And, as Matt says above, we know the geography of our city. You talk about levee breaks you better talk about all of them. Lakeview is as much a part of New Orleans as the 9th Ward and New Orleans East. If Lee had wanted to make a doc only on the black experience of Katrina, then all his interviews with those affected by the storm shoud have been black.

First off, New Orleans did not show up. I am terrible with estimating numbers but a large, large portion of the Arena was empty. So way to go New Orleans and not turn out. No where close to 11,000 people that were supposed to be there.

My first reaction to the documentary was that it was good. But then thinking about the stories not told, the fact that any credence is given to the levees being exploded, and the fact that a lot of other stuff was glossed over, it lost that appeal.

For those that know the area, very little attention is paid to the Gulf Coast. There is only one person really interviewed from the Coast. There is a little bit of talk about Jefferson Parish and the flooding out here, but no mention of the fact the pump stations were evacuated and no pumps were turned on.

I still say watch it though. I say watch it to see how a government completely fails to respond. Watch to see what some people went through. Then after you are done watching it, try and come down here and see for yourself. Hell, I will take you around myself so you have a context of some of th eplaces. Because it has been said before and it is said in the film, you can watch all you want on TV, but when you get here and see the damage in person it is a whole nother experience.

Even today when I was out with my family we saw people just now gutting their home. You can still see buildings which have had no work done. Some days it feels like the “recovery” will never bloody end.

And sorry, I won’t be able to respond to any replies since I am headed to Vegas tomorrow. Hope everyone have a good weekend. Go look for my name in the credits of the Fantasia movie on Lifetime (Office PA).

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David It’s not Lee’s responsibility to cover every angle of every story in every area of the disaster. He set out to make a specific film. It’s a ridiculous gripe, especially from anyone with even a cursory familiarity with Spike Lee movies. And the title has nothing to do with it. It’s like saying that Murderball unfairly failed to mention other disabled sports.

It’s a legitimate gripe that a documentary calling itself “When the Levees Broke” limits itself to the struggles of one particular race, when so many were affected. I’d have the same gripe if someone else made a similar documentary that focused only on whites.

It would be as if the makers of a documentary named “Heroes of World War II” made a conscious decision to portray only white soldiers.

Quote:
Look, do you know how many documentaries have an agenda? The correct answer is “all of them”. Documentaries are not news. They put forth an opinion, and then make a case for that opinion. They are not impartial, and they are not objective. Never have been, never will be; that’s not their job. Spike Lee set out to make a film about a specific aspect of the Katrina disaster. Criticizing him for not moving outside the scope of his intent is foolish.

You’re right. We have no reason to believe documentaries should be impartial and objective; but the logical correllary is that it is also perfectly acceptable to criticize a director’s particular choices and objectives, assuming your reasons are valid. It isn’t per se “foolish” to state that you dislike the aesthetic choices made by an artist.

Of course, I haven’t seen the work, and maybe if/when I see it I’ll change my viewpoint. As it stands now, though, it sounds awfully short-sighted.