Troubling the Water

Between the corporate media circus coverage of the US presidential elections and the "security" arrangements in store for any prospective DNC and RNC protesters, it struck me that there is very little room for anything between spectacle and surveillance these days. Fortunately not everyone is taking this lying down.

Today's launch of the film Trouble the Water directed and produced by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal and executive produced by the company I co-founded, Louverture Films, opens up a meaningful space to examine critical and pressing issues that have remained unaddressed and unresolved since the Katrina disaster three years ago to this Sunday.

When that storm hit, it revealed what the media had not -- the disaster within the disaster: the poverty of a mindset that narrowly views security as a military issue; a mindset that is blind to the role of culture in sustaining the mental health and social wellness of people (which is also the basis for economic productivity); blind to the role of culture in education, through which we are prepared for our responsibilities in a democracy; and hostile to the role of culture in the search for truth.

Trouble the Water is a masterful and moving catalyst for challenging the cataclysmic failure of imagination that the Bush II and previous Clinton and Bush regimes offered us. It is a necessary film for a necessary change. See it. You will be moved

Trouble the Water opens today at the IFC New York, Sunset 5 Los Angeles and Edwards Westpark Irvine and will be followed by a national release.

Watch the trailer here:

Comments

[doctorj2u]

Danny,
I missed the showing in New Orleans. (I never heard about it until after the showing.) Will it be back or are their plans to make it available for purchase in the future? Or will there be a viewing on cable or PBS eventally? Thanks again. Artists seem to be the only people that understand the beauty, mystery and value of my wonderful hometown. What is the source? The spriit of its beautiful people, of course.

[proudamericanblkwoman]

Mr. Glover, I read your post earlier today about this film and then ran out to catch the 4:30 show at Edwards Westpark in Irvine, CA. What a poignant film that could only be told from one of the victims of all Govs: US Gov (past and present/Bush), Louisiana Gov and the city of NO. I cried! I got angry! I'm still hopeful! I love my country!

Thank you so much for bringing this to America's consciousness. Like other American Holocusts (and we all know to what I'm referring) and the Jewish Holocust, this story must be told and reminded to us all for the rest of our existance. "Lest we forget - Lest we forget!"

People, PLEASE GO SEE THIS MOVIE SOONER RATHER THAN LATER!

[ginnyc]

I recommend that you see Trouble the Water right away. We all know the story of Hurricane Katrina, but you have never seen it told from Trouble the Water’s point of view.
Trouble the Water is not just about Hurricane Katrina. It is about the crisis faced by poor people in New Orleans and America, and the criminal failure of the Bush administration – to this day – to help poor working people in New Orleans and throughout the country.
Congratulations to Danny Glover, Carl Dean and Tia Lessin. Carl and Tia demonstrate their remarkable talent in this film, and Danny shows his brillance in identifying and backing a real work of art.

[doctorj2u]

Thank you Danny for being part of getting this film out. Nothing can change the past, but Americans need to see the spirit of the people of New Orleans. I want to see this documentary and Katrina's Children. Here is the trailor for that one.

http://www.katrinaschildren.com/web/html/h0300.html

[Sandnsea]

I hope this film will have a wide distribution so that those of us in smaller communities can see it! The story of what happened with Katrina needs to be a part of our history that is taught, so that we can learn from this lesson and not let it happen again.

[Bobrobert]

Folks - why would anyone want to live there???

Mother Nature can be mean and nasty - it is time for folks to use some common sense and move on before another tantrum from Mother Nature destroys the city again - it is only a matter of time.

Our government won't help us - we need to help ourselves.

[doctorj2u]

Let New Orleanians tell you why.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeNARLH7MFI

[loudspeaker]

Danny Glover, you are a courageous citizen -- a true American citizen. You seem to deploy yourself in useful ways for the U.S.A. without letting anybody tell you what to do. That takes courage. I want you to know that I admire that.

[PaulLoeb]

It's an amazing film. We saw it at the Seatle film festival, where it was a major audience favorite. IT's a great story of survival and compassion and invention among people who were discarded by our society long before Katrina hit. The central characters are totally engaging and inspiring

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks to you Mr. Glover,
I am a New Orleans native and visited my hometown a year before Katrina hit. The place was a mass of empoverished under and unemployed youth forced to hustle any way they could to have a piece of the dream that they saw stolen. The Bush years took what it could from Louisiana to benefit the oil rich pricks in Texas. When I went home this summer I saw the plan laid out, clear out the peons and make way for a new gentrified class to turn it into Vegas for crackers.

[CKieffer]

I am going to start by saying that I seriously hope "crackers" is not the pejorative term used for white people.

This is not about peons - - part of it is about horrific housing that should have been condemned years ago (had the local government given a crap about living conditions and helping people held hostage to welfare checks). Take a trip to Key West and you'll see NO's future. The local officials sell out the development rights and then control the tourist industry. It is not about peons - - it is about apathy. Do people attend Planning/Z­oning/City council meetings regularly? Of course not. They prefer to play Monday morning quarterback when it is easy to make the calls and much easier than ref'ing the game while it is "live".

So, will the rough edges be gone? Yes. Will it be Disney'd? Yes. Will it lose part of its soul? Yes. I will not lie - - it is depressing to see it happen and I have seen it happen several times.

"Bush and the pricks in Texas"? Are you saying that no one in Louisiana benefited from the oil industry? Who benefited from developing the wetlands/marshes that provided a natural buffer for hurricanes? Montana? Louisiana's government has been corrupt and inept for generations.

So, that leads me to: As a native, where was your outrage for the generational poverty of the 9th Ward? What programs were you involved with that helped the youth you mention?

[chicagobama]

I saw Trouble the Water a few weeks ago at a Film Festival, and Tia and Carl did a Q&A after the film. It's a very powerful, wonderful film. I was part of a packed house and we gave it a standing ovation.

Not only dies Trouble the Water highlight the failures of the current government, it showcases the beauty of the people who were caught up in the disaster and the strength many of them showed to survive and keep their dreams alive.

I hope many people get the chance to see Trouble the Water. I'll see it again if it comes to my community.

[PatA]

~~~~~>>>-- dead and floating in wreckage because the government they thought served them chose to ignore the danger~~~~~
and MuntabQuestion said:
Why, no. It's because the people who received the warnings didn't leave the city!!!! How many school buses that could have taken them out of the city just sat there, unused, because the *city* government couldn't get their girdle in gear abuot it?
You must have stayed glued to your television, MQ, while you were trying to make your mind up whether it was the resident's fault or it was the city government who didn't have a girdle.
Some people choose to be spectators and others are participants...(I am ever so thankful that
people like Sean Penn chose to be a participant.)
The government couldn't and wouldn't do it and you putting it back on the poorest of the poor is a sure sign of your disconnect with humanity.
I am sorry for you and proud of so many others who gave up their comforts and went to NO
to help. I wish that I could be there right now helping rebuild.

~~

[Vickie Karp - Huffpost Blogger]

Looking forward to seeing this great film. And it may be of interest for you to know that HBO's Monday night premiere of "The Black List," a documentary featuring 23 outstanding African Americans which I write about it my most recent "Third Screen" post (an interview with the documentary's writer, Elvis Mitchell), features former New Orleans Mayor Mark Morial on, briefly but poignantly, on Katrina. The honesty and frankness of the interviews is this documentary are compelling. Danny Glover, I've been a fan for a long time, and it's rewarding to see you doing such meaningful work. Thank you!

[Rightupsidethehead]

Hopefully all those affected can put their lives back together without help from the government.

[MuntabQuestion]

If they'd stopped waiting for the government six months after the disaster happened and started doing stuff for their own selves, they'd already have their lives back together.

[blindjester]

What an ignorant statement.

[groucho]

what's with the racist names? muntab? rightupsidethehead?
your ignorance is as stupid as your names.

[doctorj2u]

Ignorance must be bliss.

[FreeThinkn1]

Most of the rebuilding is being done without the help from the government. Like with Iraq, the federal money has gone to no bid contracts. The money was spent on things like fume filled trailers, millions of emergency kits that sit in warehouses, and hundreds of motor boats that did not exist.

[haleywins]

Three years later, but when August rolls around, like it just happened.

[bayside]

I am a fan of Dannys. He has a good heart..I intend to see this film..

[schatsie]

Danny is a national treasure who speaks truth to power, I too will go see this film. Frankly, because of the diaspora, we will never know whether more people died in New Orleans than died in the 9/11. The republicans have declared war on the working class.