Remembering the Fifth Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina Through Film

By on August 24, 2010 in News 6

Big EasyMoviefone heralds a Snag Films mini-fest including disinformation‘s Greg Palast film Big Easy To Big Empty: The Untold Story Of The Drowning Of New Orleans:

With the release of Spike Lee’s ‘If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,’ the follow-up to 2006′s essential ‘When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,’ the city of New Orleans is revisited five years after Hurricane Katrina to examine the progress and stagnancy of rejuvenating a still-ailing city.

Yet on the fifth anniversary of one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, Lee’s film is one of a number of documentaries to spotlight various facets of the disaster. Our friends at SnagFilms present five movies on Katrina, each looking at a different aspect of the tragedy. As we remember a government that failed and a city destroyed, these films stand as a vital testament to the city’s character, culture and resilience.

‘Big Easy To Big Empty: The Untold Story Of The Drowning Of New Orleans’ – Investigative journalist Greg Palast has long been a vital and incendiary writer, exposing discrepancies and cover-ups in everything from Mexico’s 2006 presidential electon to the Exxon Valdez spill. Here, he brings you exclusive footage on the hidden political agendas and the suppressed eyewitness reports involved in the disaster…

[continues at Moviefone]

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  • Your Mom

    Perhaps Hurricane Katrina will remind America how stupid it is to live in flood zones.

    There's a reason the indians used to migrate inland during hurricane season, y'all…

    Also: George W. Bush and Enron somehow caused Katrina, right? And it's not the fault of stupid people who live in a freaking flood zone that their homes were flooded. It's the Army Corps of Engineers's fault, correct? Because the Army has control of nature, or something…

    Am I doing it right?

    • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

      “Perhaps Hurricane Katrina will remind America how stupid it is to live in flood zones.” –They have a cure for that prob now…its called levee systems…which, if you maintain them with tax dollars instead of arguing over them endlessly, work like gangbusters.

      N.O. didn't flood because of a storm alone…the under cared for levees that have been argued over for decades by both parties and the Army Engineers finally cracked and let the water in after the fact. The lesson here is that infrastructure is more critical than people realize…until it breaks from neglect. THEN people notice that it served an important purpose.

      N.O. has been a city longer than any specific state in the union has existed. They've been wet many times…but not like that. Don't like people in flood zones? Might as well shut down every river city descended from trade and transport necessities of the 1800's across the continental US…and get everyone off Hawaii…they've got volcanoes!!!

      Bush only carries the blame for a bungled approach to crisis management and appointing a quarter horse association lawyer as head of FEMA…which is a major WTF?! considering that some experience in emergency management just might have been called for in that job. Nobody is thrilled with the Obama admins pathetic response to the Gulf oil spill…and they shouldn't be thrilled with it…it was an orgy of helpless floundering, hamfisted treatment of media and mismanaged resources…but being resentful of Bush getting the same treatment for the same chaotic botching of a regional crisis is just piss ignorant partisanship at its worst.

      But I shouldn't have to tell you that…its more or less all you engage in.

    • 5by5

      YourMom: “Also: George W. Bush and Enron somehow caused Katrina, right?”

      Well Clinton had reinforced 80% of the levees during his 8 years in office, and all that remained for Curious George to do was fix the last 20%. But instead he reduced funding to the program, and gave more permits to developers to cut into the wetlands that protect New Orleans. So, he sure as fuck didn't help BEFORE the storm, and he was an absolute disaster after the storm.

      As for Enron, no. They were too busy raping the entire West Coast.

      But the oil companies that George and DICK were in bed with? They helped make Katrina worse, because higher ocean temperatures caused by global warming make bigger hurricanes. Thus the Cat 5.

  • http://diaryfromthedome.net Paul Harris

    Thank you for showcasing these films.

    Why though do some people who comment continue to perpetuate myths about Katrina? Does it fit some racist agenda? Do they get all their news from Fox “News”? Is the truth simply too painful for them to acknowledge?

    About 1/2 of NOLA is actually above sea level while there are many more vulnerable cities in the U.S. that are below sea level and “protected” by vulnerable levees. NOLA was founded in 1718. How long has your city been around?

    Since someone will probably bring up the flooded busses as well I'll address that. Of those 100 flooded buses only about 1/2 were operable. Assuming then that those were used it would have made a small dent, relocating about 5,000 of 50,000 people. And who was going to drive those? The drivers had almost all evacuated with their own families.

    And most are still unaware the Airport, Amtrak, and Greyhound all shut down a day before the mandatory evacuation. Many of us could not get out in time. Still, evacuation experts rate the 85-90% evacuation rate as one of the highest ever.

    And finally, yes Katrina did obliterate many communities along the MS Gulf Coast, but for New Orleans it was the failed Army Corps of Engineers' levees that caused most of the death and destruction in the City.

    Paul Harris
    Author, “Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina”

  • 5by5

    EXCELLENT film.

    PArticularly jarring is seeing how poor people were barred from their homes with steel barriers across their front doors, even though the buildings were never touched by water. Then they demolished 4,500 residences — in a city in desperate need of housing — all because they wanted to put poor people out of sight and out of mind.

    Lame. Really lame.

  • 5by5

    YourMom: “Also: George W. Bush and Enron somehow caused Katrina, right?”

    Well Clinton had reinforced 80% of the levees during his 8 years in office, and all that remained for Curious George to do was fix the last 20%. But instead he reduced funding to the program, and gave more permits to developers to cut into the wetlands that protect New Orleans. So, he sure as fuck didn’t help BEFORE the storm, and he was an absolute disaster after the storm.

    As for Enron, no. They were too busy raping the entire West Coast.

    But the oil companies that George and DICK were in bed with? They helped make Katrina worse, because higher ocean temperatures caused by global warming make bigger hurricanes. Thus the Cat 5.