Trouble the Water

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of 5): ****

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal technically directed Trouble the Water, the Oscar-nominated documentary about Hurricane Katrina and the massive destruction it wreaked in 2005, but the real center of the film comes from local couple Kimberly and Scott Roberts, who captured the arrival of the storm on their store-bought video camera. We get a real grasp of the disaster from a ground level; we can finally understand just how fast the water rose, and just how difficult it was to keep one's head above it. Kimberly and Scott retreated to their attic as the waters rose up through the first floor of their home, and their untrained camerawork captures the terror and claustrophobia of that time.

The directors then follow the couple in the days and weeks following the storm, showing astonishment at the behavior of the authorities and shock as government aid fails to come in. We also get a firm grasp of the racial and social situation, and a real flavor of the Roberts' ragged neighborhood, which suggests one reason behind government indifference. Lessin and Deal mostly stay out of the way, letting the Robertses -- one a former drug dealer and the other an aspiring rap star (she provides the closing credits song) -- tell their own story. (The filmmakers do occasionally succumb to slanted bits of news footage and clips of former President Bush and former FEMA director Michael D. Brown.) Some of the individual images stand out more than any potential messaging, however, such as a man rescuing stranded neighbors using a punching bag as a life raft, a stop sign almost completely submerged, or Kimberly discovering the body of her uncle after the floods.

It's a view of the disaster that no amount of news coverage would ever manage to capture. But it's also admittedly something of a bitter pill.

Extras on the Zeitgeist DVD include 19 minutes of deleted and extended scenes. We also get onstage Q&As from EbertFest (23 minutes) and the New Orleans premiere (14 minutes), and footage of Kim meeting the mayor of New Orleans. There's a trailer and optional English and Spanish subtitles. The most interesting extra is a very good review -- printed in the liner notes -- by a New Orleans film critic.