Title: Trouble the Water
The Premise: Hurricane Katrina told through footage shot by a survivor.
The Critics:
“A survivor of Hurricane Katrina gets it all on camera in Trouble the Water, a blend of DIY footage and filming by co-directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal that considers the impact and aftermath of the New Orleans catastrophe from the perspective of a family that stayed at home during the storm. Though tinged with the sheer gumption and personal resolve of amateur vidmaker and would-be rapper Kimberly Roberts, this is ultimately a minor doc contribution to the bulging library of Katrina-related films and TV reports.”—Robert Koehler, Variety
“New films about Hurricane Katrina face a terrible challenge. After mountains of footage, news articles, books, TV specials, and documentaries about the storm, they now have to strive doubly hard to show something original…If Trouble the Water had come out just after Katrina, it would have been astonishing. Almost three years later, it’s a familiar story.”—Ruth Samuelson, Washington City Paper
“The directors’ unwavering concentration on their two subjects’ plight simultaneously brings the calamity down to a human scale and, consequently, enhances the depth of the tragedy. It also, however, allows for an artless depiction of sacrifice, compassion, altruism, and hope amid misfortune…”—Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
Worth the ticket? Yes. The documentary may be the latest in a long line of Katrina-related films (which includes Spike Lee’s extraordinary When the Leeves Broke), but it’s a story well-worth the retelling—if only to ensure a similar disaster does not occur.
Showtimes: 7:45 PM
For tickets and the full SilverDocs schedule, click here.
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