When the Levees Broke...

I just finished When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee's documentary on the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and particularly New Orleans. From a production standpoint, it is absolutely fantastic. The editing is superb, the colors for the interviews are brilliant (which provides a stark contrast to the images of the cities in the days after the Hurricane), and the images are shocking, yet sympathetic. It's a very emotional thing to watch, and very long (4 hours), but so worth it. The voice and culture of New Orleans shines through and it's truly sad to see the condition it's in now.

What's just as sad, if not more so, is to see how the aftermath was handled by every faction of state and federal government. The documentary is presented pretty fairly, but the opinions of the people featured are, understandably, biased. However, once you see what they were left with and left in, their stance seems almost mild. It shocked me to realize that after the tsunami of 2004, the US government was making food and water drops in Indonesia within 48 hours. It took almost 4 days to do the same for New Orleans. Unbelievable. I honestly think every American should watch this film. To remain ignorant about something on such a scale as this is nothing short of shirking our responsibility to our fellow Americans.

Peace. Out.