Spike Lee Film on Katrina

[MGC]

HBO will be airing "When the Levees Broke" by Spike Lee this August. The movie will premire at the New Orleans Arena on Wednesday August 16th (don't know why they didn't wait till the 29th), admission is free. Any of you planning to watch Spike's new movie?.....MGC

[Lindaloo]

Not me. Spike Lee always has a way of making things a race issue instead of focusing on the people and what they went through. IMO, he is nothing but a Michael Moore.

[all_we_know_is_FALLING]

I will be.

[TeeBird]

From what I've seen of the previews, this is just another vehicle to race-bash and point fingers. I've seen enough of that for a lifetime.

The blame for the catastophic damage cannot be laid at the feet of any one administration, be it the mayor, the governor or the president.

The seeds for this disaster were planted decades ago.

[craptacular]

OK, I know I'm hearing this wrong, but at the end of the documentary, when they have the various people introduce themselves, I SWEAR one young guy says he's "Will J Newton" from the 9th ward. I rewound it a number of times on my DVR, and can't come up with any other names. It's hard for me to understand the southern drawl, but it sure sounded like that name.

[Ixolib]

OK, I know I'm hearing this wrong, but at the end of the documentary, when they have the various people introduce themselves, I SWEAR one young guy says he's "Will J Newton" from the 9th ward. I rewound it a number of times on my DVR, and can't come up with any other names. It's hard for me to understand the southern drawl, but it sure sounded like that name.

Well, it "is" a small world!! Could it be???

[MGC]

The constant references to slavery has greatly taken way from this movie. I did think it was funny when the guy in Mississippi told the VP off though. All in all I was not impressed. Made me sad. I really have not seen much Katrina video since the last TV I got to see was on Tuesday after Katrina......MGC

[Audrey2Katrina]

Clearly a LOT of stuff that can't be discussed on these threads because it likewise clearly was rife with political innuendo. That said, it had some very poignant moments and there were times when I completely had to agree with a lot of those folks that were speaking. For obvious reasons I won't say which. Seeing Garland Robinette break down several times also hit home for a lot of us who feel for the destruction of our region--simply because with all it's shortcomings--it is still "home".

A2K

[HollynLA]

I have watched it. Spike Lee made the whole documentary on race issues more than the devestation that Katrina actually caused. By watching this documentary, I would swear that NOLA was 99% black and I think MS got about 4 whole minutes out of 4 hours. Totally biased! Did Katrina hit anywhere else besides the 9th ward?

[Lindaloo]

I have watched it. Spike Lee made the whole documentary on race issues more than the devestation that Katrina actually caused. By watching this documentary, I would swear that NOLA was 99% black and I think MS got about 4 whole minutes out of 4 hours. Totally biased! Did Katrina hit anywhere else besides the 9th ward?

Which is exactly why I did not watch it. Spike Lee is racist. Another thing he should have stated was the fact that alot of these folks are STILL in FEMA trailers one year later.

[Audrey2Katrina]

I have watched it. Spike Lee made the whole documentary on race issues more than the devestation that Katrina actually caused. By watching this documentary, I would swear that NOLA was 99% black and I think MS got about 4 whole minutes out of 4 hours. Totally biased! Did Katrina hit anywhere else besides the 9th ward?

Hey, God in Heaven knows I'm no Spike Lee fan, and certainly don't intend to become one of his apologists; and yes, although I kind of danced around it (because I didn't want to tread unfriendly waters) there was decidedly a lot of race baiting in the series. That said I found a lot of it was fairly moving. Its primary focus was not supposed to be about Katrina as a whole, and/or its impact in every region impacted, which is why the name: "The Day the Levees Broke." It's very title suggested (at least to me it did) that the primary focus would be on the New Orleans area in general, and NO area of New Orleans received damage as severe as did the Ninth Ward. Had someone done one called, hypothetically speaking here, "The Day The Coast had A Tsunami" or something like that--I certainly would have expected it to focus primarily on the horrendous damage inflicted on the coast of Mississippi, with little mention of Louisiana, or New Orleans. (In fact someone should do something like that because hundreds of thousands of good folks in that erstwhile beautiful area were devastated as well)--I'd sure watch it! There could/should also be something about "The Forgotten Coast"... or some other not-so-subtle hint about the sheer havoc wreaked by Rita, totally submersed by all the media frenzy over Katrina--Rita was a CATASTROPHE, and quite possibly did as much damage to coastal wetlands as Katrina--but I digress. But the fact that Lee focused on one particular group of people, usually with the same ax to grind, given his track record, came as no big surprise to me, and shouldn't have to anyone else; I simply wanted to see footage of the area I knew I hadn't seen before (Sorry, I am an OLD Ninth Warder)--and some of it was quite unpleasant, and hard to look at. I will also say that the first two "Acts" were more informative and poignant than the last two which were little more than a protracted derision of every politician you can imagine he doesn't take a cotton to--leave it at that. I did see a lot of folks though, from Kenner, and other areas (Yclosky in St. Bernard, Garland Robinette, and some other guy from the Garden District-- among others) who were regularly speaking. Again, no "apologies" for the effort; but I did find some parts of it worth seeing if for no better reason than to know how all sides are "thinking" on this issue. I caution those who might plan to see it during re-airing, some of the scenes can be quite disturbing.

A2K

[Lindaloo]

His focus was on New Orleans because of the color of their skin, period! I am still glad I did not watch it.

[sunny]

His focus was on New Orleans because of the color of their skin, period! I am still glad I did not watch it.

Yep - and ditto.

Also - the levees were NOT blown!

[Lindaloo]

I heard that was part of the film Cindy. Spike Lee is what he is and always will be.

[sunny]

It makes me mad Linda, that he did that. Like we don't have enough problems to contend with already, let's fabricate some more and make the job that much more difficult!

[Audrey2Katrina]

Cindy: Did you watch the whole thing; and you know me well enough to know I'm not asking that sarcastically; because unless I missed something, while there were the clips of the usual suspects railing about the "blowing" of levees, I THOUGHT there was a credible series of followup interviews where they actually tried to explain how people might have "thought" they heard explosions which were nothing more than the collapsing of certain sections of the levee from very natural causes--I didn't see it as claiming that the levees were "blown" although there certainly were people who did make that claim... as they did with Betsy when I was down in the thick of it.

That it clearly tried to draw a racial devide in suggesting that somehow or other the reason for poor responses et. al. was race-based, was undeniable, and I completelely agree uncalled for in what should have been an objective documentary--but I think we all know Mr. Lee's reputation for objectivity.

A2K

[sunny]

I didn't see it at all Don. I just read excerpts about it where he left the impression that the levees were blown. I also remember the yelling right after about "they blew the levees" and Jesse Jackson coming down here saying "they blew the levees" and I just know there will be a bunch of crap about it.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Ahhh.. I dunno... could be I missed a lot of what you may be talking about in the last two segments, as the levels of politicizing got me so disgusted watching that, that we got up and went out onto the patio and had some cold ones; perhaps I missed a lot of the innuendo made there. If so, you would think someone who gained a huge following since Katrina, (Garland Robinette) would have come on after its release and decried the bias it displayed. Personally I don't listen to the radio that much anymore--time to move on; and perhaps he did...Okay I'm rambling, so I guess I'll just give it up.

A2K

[Audrey2Katrina]

I didn't see it at all Don. I just read excerpts about it where he left the impression that the levees were blown. I also remember the yelling right after about "they blew the levees" and Jesse Jackson coming down here saying "they blew the levees" and I just know there will be a bunch of crap about it.

Jesse Jackson and his "rent a riot" crew will say just about anything if it gets him notoriety. And yes, they did talk to a lot of folks who typically railed that the whole thing was some devious plot of the government's--of course NOBODY went on to explain that if you went by actual "Ratio" among the dead--it was disproportionately the other way around, if you catch my drift. The very notion that they'd "blow levees" and flood the most affluent sections of the city, thus crippling one of the nation's most important cities (economically), is patently absurd--but we all know what P.T. Barnum had to say about that kind of mentality. I guess, since I knew that I'd be asked a lot of questions by some of the kids, I felt I had to watch it (at least the first 2 --only snippets of the last 2)... and as I'd said... I DID notice that in speaking to folks of both races and officials from both sides, the film, in my opinion, actually did a credible job of debunking the popular myth about the military/gov't "blowing the levees"... at least the parts I saw seemed to.

A2K

[sunny]

You are right and I do catch your drift. I SAW the demographics - they were half and half across the board!

My first thought was they were going back to when they DID blow the MS River Levee during Betsy. They did that to save the Quarter. Was it right? Probably not. But have you seen the many different areas where the levees broke during Katrina? That means they had different people out there in cat 1 and cat 2 conditions to place dynamite in about six different areas. That's a vast conspiracy and cover up in my estimation.

And I guess there is something else that has just stuck in my head. While I was in Atlanta in the days immediately following the storm and they were busing people from the Convention Center to Houston, they interviewed this couple who stood there screaming the the Federal Government should give them EACH $20,000 to start their lives over. I didn't get and I STILL do not get that mentality!

Here we are almost a year out and I thought I was over my anger. Apparently I am not