NYT/Reuters: New Orleans Pained, Proud of Spike Lee's Katrina Documentary

[DeepModem Mom]

New Orleans Pained, Proud of Katrina Documentary
By REUTERS
Published: August 17, 2006

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - They came from down the block and from hours away to see director Spike Lee's view of how Hurricane Katrina changed their lives, and New Orleanians were sad and proud of what they viewed.

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? We do,'' Gerry Carter said early on Thursday after joining thousands who watched the premiere of Lee's film "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.''

"It opened up old wounds -- I was scared to go in,'' said Carter, who has not yet returned from evacuation and is living in Baton Rouge.

The scars of Katrina are still evident in many parts of New Orleans. Entire neighborhoods await cleanup, much less rebuilding, since the storm swept in nearly a year ago. It flooded 80 percent of the city and killed 1,336 in the region.

Lee's documentary, filmed for Time Warner Inc's HBO, begins as the storm brews in the Gulf of Mexico and watches it hit on August 29. Then it follows the slow rescue and even slower recovery of the city....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-weather-hurricanes-film.html

(The film will show in two two-hour parts on HBO, beginning on August 21.)

[babylonsister]

1. My one regret is that it won't be shown on regular TV for those

w/o HBO. I'm sure it's going to be devastating, and something everyone should see. No one should ever forget how these people were treated.

[apnu]

2. Don't worry, HBO will have a DVD of it soon

but it will be very expensive, like all HBO DVD's. Ever look at the cost of a season for one of thier shows? about $100 bucks for the set. You do get some nice stuff in the sets, but wow they are expensive.

[merh]

3. Another one that ignores Mississippi, Louisiana & Alabama Coast

Lee focuses on New Orleans, peeks at Coast
By PETE TATTERSALL
[e-mail]
NEW ORLEANS - Spike Lee's four-hour Hurricane Katrina documentary premiered in New Orleans on Wednesday, and the filmmaker held a press conference to discuss the impact the movie could have on audiences in the United States and around the world.

"When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" will air on HBO at 8 p.m. Monday (Parts I and II) and 8 p.m. Tuesday (Parts III and IV), and will repeat on Aug. 29 from 7-11 p.m.

(snip)

When the Sun Herald pointed out that there is a perception on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that the national media focus is on New Orleans, and asked if the film touched upon the Coast, Lee said: "We, early on, say that we are going to deal specifically with New Orleans. We have a couple of scenes that take place in Gulfport, Miss.

"But because of the historical significance of this, this is a great city, a world city, we choose to focus here. And again, that was my vision. It's not to belittle any other places of the Gulf region that were hit by Katrina. I wanted to concentrate on New Orleans."

(snip)

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/15292374.htm

Don't use the excuse of the historical significance of New Orleans, it just shows ignorance. Biloxi is an older city than New Orleans and just as rich in culture. As a matter of fact, it was the settlers that had set up a community in Biloxi that actually founded New Orleans.

The French established the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi valley in 1699 across the bay at Old Biloxi (now Ocean Springs). New Biloxi, founded in 1719, was the capital of French Louisiana until 1722, when New Orleans replaced it.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/bi/Biloxi.html

The crime continues, the neglect of the government, the government turning its back on the poor and the minorities, those most in need of assistance. The poor and the underprivileged are being neglected and forced out, hell, they are even closing affordable housing projects that survived the storm.

Editorial Posted on Thu, Aug. 17, 2006

This is a terrible time to demolish public housing

With thousands of South Mississippians still displaced by Hurricane Katrina, now is a terrible time for a government agency to toss as many as 400 families out of public housing.

Yet that is just what the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority VIII intends to do, by selling the L.C. Jones property in Gulfport and transferring the W.M. Ladnier property in Gulfport and Charles Warner in Pascagoula to the nonprofit South Mississippi Housing and Development Corporation.

The housing authority has told its tenants that it can no longer maintain the properties as public housing because of a lack of insurance proceeds and funding from HUD. But rather than ask HUD for more funding, the authority has asked HUD for permission to proceed with the sale and transfers.

The Jones property may or may not be redeveloped as affordable housing. The Ladnier and Warner properties will be, but in stages.

In the meantime, what are the hundreds of families now living in those housing units supposed to do?

The housing authority suggests that its soon-to-be-former-tenants use vouchers to obtain substitute accommodations. Duh! Are the folks at Region VIII really that out of touch with the shortage of shelter in Harrison and Jackson counties?

This is no time to demolish usable housing anywhere in South Mississippi and this effort must be stopped.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/editorial/15292390.htm

If you are going to focus on Katrina, focus on it all - we are all survivors trying to get back our lives. New Orleans' survivors struggles are just as difficult as the struggles of the survivors in the rest of the communities in Louisiana and along the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast.

At least be honest, Mr. Lee, tell us you want to focus on the Katrina flood and the anger associated with the levies, tell us it makes for better filming and sensational story. But do not try to blow smoke up our asses, historically, Biloxi beats out New Orleans, we have been here longer, New Orleans has our culture and our people are in just as much pain.

[MasonJar]

4. Excuse me, but it is his movie vision and he explained his reasons

for concentrating on New Orleans. If enough people see the movie, perhaps it will help all the Katrina vicitms. I went to NO to see for myself in June. It is criminal what Bush let happen there with his vacations and his fundraisers. There are section after section which are left totally devastated, with no clean-up of the most rudimentary objects. Louisiana is a poor state, the only one not being paid fair remuneration for off-shore drilling (another Chavez-type screw the people if you can by US oil-y), and New Orleans is in dire straits. Tourism is the city's most significant revenue. The US government told the city, state and area that it would rebuild better than ever. It was a standard Bush lie. Nothing is being done by the feds that has shown any impact. The Dems would probably have chosen NO for the convention, a great boon for the city, but NO had to withdraw because it is so far behind in renovation.

[merh]

5. I'm well aware of New Orleans situation, I don't see it as the only

city with troubles, I see the big picture, it's a damned shame you and Spike Lee don't. Over 70 miles of the coast was devastated, from Alabama to New Orleans - Katrina actually hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, if the levies had held, New Orleans would not have had the devastation it had. The Gulf Coast didn't have levies, it tooke the full brunt of the storm and I am sure that Slidell, Louisiana get's ticked when their devasataion isn't mentioned, as does Clermont Harbor and Waveland and Bayou Lebatre.

The Missississippi Gulf Coast also relies on tourism and it is just as poor a state a Louisiana. So it's too bad if you think that I am being unreasonable. Read the full post, while folks whine about NOLA, they forget that Mississippi poor and underprivileged are being overlooked, the grants being given out are to home owners without insurance, how many underprivileged folks do you know had the luxury of owning homes?

Read my sig - I know all too well what I am talking about, I just don't go for a visit, I live amidst the destruction and listen to folks all day long and try to help them. Maybe instead of a friggin visit, you make it a monthly obligation, complete with hammer in hand.

Spike Lee's video will have an impact, but for gawd's sake, don't try to fool anyone by using the historic significance of the City. Again, we were here first and our settlers founded NOLA -- we also know the devasation and the despair and the neglect. The rest of the nation has Katrina fatigue, just imagine how those of us living in her path feel.

[JohMunich99]

6. You act like he's a judge and he should use his resources like the govt

Well he's not. It it his movie, funded with his money and/or money that he convinced others to give him. He did all the work, this isn't the OFFICIAL gov't documentary on the entire Hurricane Katarina. Did you yell at Michael Moore when he dedicated 30 minutes of F 9/11 to one woman from Michigan? "You know there are so many other families all across the United States that have to deal with this".

[merh]

7. I call him on his poor excuse for why he hasn't covered the entire

Katrina story, historic value of the city, like the other affected areas aren't important enough or historically valuable.

Because there is a focus on NOLA, the other affected regions are overlooked and the "right" simply reason that NOLA citizens asked for it, because they lived in the bowl, below sea level. If the focus is on the entire storm, all areas affected, then maybe, just maybe the citizens will see the true tragedy, that it can happen to everyone, to anyone, no matter how many precautions were taken, no matter how many steps were taken to save their houses, their lives. And our government has done little to help folks rebuild. Privatization of the clean up and recovery efforts lined the pockets of their cronies because our guard was fighting in Iraq.

NOLA Katrina was a flood and most of the "structures" that were affected are still there. Katrina was so much more. 70 miles or more of Coast line are missing -- homes, businesses, schools and churches -- entire communities. And with them, the history of the Coast, as rich and as long lived as NOLA, has been wiped clean. Folks that have come here have been shocked at tht miles and miles of devasation, the missing landmarks, the rubble, the remains of folks lives. Soldiers that served in Iraq and saw the bombed out remains of their cities have seen the Mississippi Gulf Coast and cried that such devastation, so much more extreme than the war zone, has happened here in the USoA. To ignore that by stating that the historical significance of NOLA is greater is bull crap and that is what I have posted.

:hi: