Don't Forget the Promises Made After Katrina

Would you ever have believed we could so quickly forget Katrina? A little more than two years have passed since the storm blew out of the Gulf to hammer the coast and drown New Orleans. Two years and change. And have we forgotten? As a country, yes, we have.

I've spent the last two years directing a documentary, Desert Bayou, that follows some of the survivors of Katrina. I've been living and breathing this story. But I have to ask myself: if I wasn't making the movie, if I wasn't involved in telling the story, would I have forgotten too? Probably.

So many promises were made back then. Every media heavyweight, just about everyone in government from the governor of Louisiana, through all 535 members of Congress, on up to the President of the United States, and millions of regular people, all vowed never to forget, never to rest until the Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans had been made whole once again. Remember how we were never going to abandon those people? Remember how determined we were? We were going to do whatever it took. Whatever it took. And yet today you can compare photos from parts of New Orleans to parts of Haiti, and not be able to tell the difference.

Of course we never much gave a damn about the poor of New Orleans before the storm. Let's be honest. Our devotion to the poor has waned. We've had other things on our minds. The war. Excuse me, the wars. The stock market. American Idol. How about that Sanjaya? I mean, if we had cared before the storm, we wouldn't have found ourselves standing around staring in horror at our TV sets as an American city was swallowed whole by the Gulf of Mexico. If we had cared before the storm we wouldn't have had to keep talking about how much we cared after the storm. And we wouldn't have to feel bad about the way we've sort of moved on from all those bold promises we made two years ago.

The promise I made two years ago was to contribute what I could. I didn't have a lot of money to give to the Red Cross. I wouldn't have had anywhere to put an evacuee family. But, I had cameras, and I had sound equipment, and I had the training to use them. I decided not to try and retell a story that I believed would be told and retold a hundred times, but to focus on a piece of the disaster, open just a window on a few of the people who survived. Soon after the disaster, 600 African-American evacuees were flown, without any warning, without being asked their opinion of the matter, to the whitest place in America, Salt Lake City. Louisiana to Utah. Steamy bayou to freezing desert.

I heard about that flight and thought there,there is a story I can tell. And in telling that story, I'll be one small beam of light in what I expected to be a great spotlight that would shine, unblinking, on New Orleans until New Orleans was made whole. Well, in terms of documentaries, it's Spike Lee's magisterial When the Levees Broke, and my own Desert Bayou.

I'm probably more emotional about this issue than is appropriate. I'm a white guy from Chicago. I had no family in New Orleans. But once I made the decision to make this film I couldn't look away. I got to know people who'd been there. I'll be the first to say that under other circumstances I would probably have moved on to some other concern. But I'm trapped by this story. And I can't let go of it. I don't want us all to forget about it. I still want us to help the people whose lives were shattered by the storm. I still want us to keep all those promises we made. I can't help but call out to my fellow Americans and say, please remember. Please take action. Please help. Don't forget.

Desert Bayou opens Friday, October 5 at City Cinemas Village East.

Alex LeMay received a proclamation from Councilman Weprin at City Hall for the film.

Comments

[andvoodootoo]

Thanks, Alex for helping people remember us. I hope to see your film.
What people outside of New Orleans don't understand is how unique New Orleans is and how difficult it is to leave here. Most people from New Orleans stay in New Orleans. Sure, they may go away to college or even leave for that first job. But, they almost always come back to stay. I'm always meeting people who came down here for college or just to visit and never left. It's common to find locals living just a few doors down from their parents, grandma's around the corner, aunt so and so one block over, etc. We have very unique customs and a way of life here unlike anywhere else. When I hear people say that we should give up on New Orleans and all relocate, it makes me furious.
Everyone, come to New Orleans and see for yourself what all the fuss is about. But, I warn you, you may not ever want to leave.

[ArtLiquidBlogspot]

SO MUCH THIS country needs and too make right for all Americans,not just the top Brass.

[Indiana]

Thanks for an excellent post and for keeping the memory of Katrina and New Orleans' levee breaches alive. It is shameful that over 2 years later so many have forgotten and it looks like the mainstream media won't air anything again about New Orleans until 8/29's third anniversary.

I don't think "Desert Bayou" will be shown in a theatre where I live, so I hope it comes out on DVD soon. It sounds like an excellent, sad documentary.

[cshideler]

I was a recent guest at a screening of Desert Bayou in Austin, TX and was really impressed with the wide scope of the film. What appears to begin as a film about issues that "retell[s] a story that...would be told and retold a hundred times" turns into something quite different and more ambitious.

By following 2 black evacuee families from their native New Orleans to Salt Lake City, where they were placed without warning, the film becomes much more than a film about New Orleans and Katrina. With that disaster as a back drop, we witness how conservative, white, and religious Utah mishandles and humiliates but ultimately accepts impoverished African Americna evacuees, how displaced black families cope in a new environment with memories of Katrina haunting them, all while raising questions and uncertainties about the rebuilding of New Orleans.

I think the thing that most struck me about the film was that it refuses to tell you what to think. It raises so many important issues and questions about things beyond Katrina: racism, religion, poverty, violence, substance abuse, etc. At the end of the film, I was driven to think and to research the events portrayed...and it made me think about politics and race in a way I hadn't been challenged to in a long time. I really appreciate its trust of the viewer by not giving a heavy-handed message about this tragedy, but presenting many sides of the issue, raising many questions, and letting the viewer decide where to stand.

[backhandpath]

Alex, you are a saint.
Please move to New Orleans.

[ProfCrocco]

Alex: Thanks to you for keeping this story alive. I've made a commitment to do the same, and I'd like to tell readers of your blog to check out our project at www.teachingthelevees.org. It's a curriculum tied to Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke," and it's free--along with a copy of the film. All you have to do is sign up at the website. We've got a blogger, too, and there's lots of discussion we're hoping to have about the "lessons of Katrina." Check it out.

[backhandpath]

Thanks.

[showme54]

jgo, it is amazing that if you wait long enough people eventually speak the 'truth'. In you comment you said 'i remember when Katrina was only heading towards New Orleans, the right jokingly said "just watch". You know the sad thing is that is exactly what many of them did for about 5 days, which is where I think most of the critics (from both parties)draw from. Because if you check your info, it was not just New Orleans, but surrounding communities in s.e. Louisiana and the coastal cities of Mississippi were in pretty dire straits. Also, Alabama & Florida had taken quite a smack from Katrina. As well as 3 weeks later, s.w. Louisiana and s.e. Texas were slammed by Hurricane Rita, which also reflooded NOLA.

The '100s of billions sent down there', sounds like a whole bunch if it was going to NOLA but when you LOOK at the facts and when you take into consideration that much of the initial 'dollars' were used for reimbursements for rescue, relief and recovery, cleanup, contracts, housing, transportation and includes payouts to people from the fed flood insurance policies that they had...for FOUR states and spanning a 90,000 square MILE area in Katrina, and TWO states, involving approx 60,000 square miles with Hurricane Rita. Both storms impacting over 1 MILLION people, that is not a unexpected amount. Also, the funds appropriated include damages to Florida by Hurricane Wilma. Plus, if you factor in that not all monies appropriated have ended up in very many communities or citizens hands yet after 2 yrs from what I read...could be part of their distress.

As far as these states being a 'bastion of liberalism', you must definitely know very little of the South to make such a statement.

[jgo]

I remember when Katrina was only heading towards New Orleans, the right jokingly said "just watch, the
left will blame the this hurricane on GW"
Sure as the sun rises in the East, they were right. How many 100s of billions was send down there? What is it you want? The state and city is a bastion of liberalism. take some responsibility already.

[Indiana]

Grrrrr! You seem to have bought into what the Bush Administration and right wing in general would want you to believe as it neglects New Orleans and abandons her to a slow painful death.

The Bushie spinmeisters would have you believe that New Orleans and Louisiana had been responsible for levee maintenance. However, this maintenance was actually the responsibility of the FEDERALLY-funded Army Corps of Engineers. The Bush Administration had cut FEDERAL funding for this levee maintenance. So, New Orleans' flood is totally a MANMADE disaster, the blame for which can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the Bush Administration.

And about the "100s of billions"--The figure, actually about $110 billion to begin with, covers not only aid for Louisiana including New Orleans, but also covers aid for Mississippi (which in fact, with a Republican Gov. and members of Congress) has gotten a disproportionate share), Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Much of it, being tied up by various forms of bureaucracy, hasn't made it to the people who need it.

[backhandpath]

Go get 'em, Indy!
Grrrrrr
Thanks

[backhandpath]

Go back home to your out-house, Troll-bait.
Find somebody your own size to kick around--but you'd better bring a magnifying glass.

[Indiana]

Well said!