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:
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Americans never should shake the tragic memory of seeing on national news the bodies of men, women and children -- children, for Bob's sake -- dead and floating in wreckage because the government they thought served them chose to ignore the danger. What this country did to its own citizens , what human beings did to each other, is an outrage and disgusting beyond what words can describe. It's mind-boggling why still nothing yet has been addressed substantially in Louisiana. Hopefully this film will draw more attention to one of the ugliest stains inflicted on our soil during these past three years, as well as get people riled up enough to galvanize. Thank you for your post and for being one of the few celebrities whose actions speak so much louder than public-service announcements.
I have to be honest - - as horrifying as the Katrina situation was - - more horrifying was that the whole 9th Ward existed in the first place. New Orleans was so astonishingly corrupt and no one who lived there cared enough to change it and in fact, re-elected a mayor who perpetuates it.
So, while the Katrina; as a subject onto itself; shows the inadequacies (a serious understatement) of this government (federal and local); more distressing is that we, as a country, tolerate 9th Wards; tolerate Appalachian poverty and feel no sense of outrage at sub-human living conditions; corrupt/inadequate local governments and generational poverty with little to no education.
I am a California girl who lived in Long Beach, MS for a few years. It was a real culture shock moving there, it wasn't all bad, but it was very different. The one thing that stuck with me was the amount of corruption in the local and state government. Miss. had it's issues, but LA was as corrupt as they could be, and they seemed to be proud of it. I left the area a few months before the hurricane hit and was horrified watching it on TV. The duplex we had just sold was completely swept away.
I think the miscommunications between the different levels of government need to be investigated. We have heard much about the federal governments failings, but little about the state and local levels. I do not have much hope that this movie by Danny Glover will shine any light on these issues.
Nagin won reelection by telling the people what he had always told them, they were victims and blame the man. Nagin does nothing to empower the people of New Orleans, he gets his power by keeping them down.
Hear, hear -- I agree the problem does not fall strictly on the shoulders of federal government; it very much also is due to failures within the local government as well. In fact, when you boil it down, the residents themselves share some of the culpability. As with any government, we get what we settle for, and if we're willing to settle and re-elect politicians who thus far have served us ill, then we're to blame for the deaths of the children in our cities, states and countries. What bothers me is that some of us don't re-elect the bad ones, but they win anyway -- whether through corruption or an ignorant collective that out-votes us or buying their way into office. In which case, I suppose it's not so much we get what we settle for; rather, we get what they pay for.
>>>-- dead and floating in wreckage because the government they thought served them chose to ignore the danger
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?
Oh I see, it's the victims fault! It makes it so much easier for Muntab and others of his kind to turn their backs on suffering Americans. " Not MY problem. It is "personal responsibility"". Well, where was the personal responsiblity of the Corps of Enginners in protecting US citizens? Where is the accountability of a government that caused the deaths of so many elderly Americans in their attics?
I hope this film does well, I look forward to seeing it. Reviews have been great. 3 years ago and the Katrina scandal is almost forgotten. The past 8 years have seen failure after failure by the powers that be and we've seem to become immune to it all. The old phrase I first heard 4 years ago is still valid today--"if you're not outraged, you haven't been paying attention.
Yeah, this is a film I'm not going to download but to actually go to the movie theater to watch.
The neglect and lack of leadership from bush and on all government levels is a crime but I wanted to how the hell did ray nagin reelected and become entrusted to help lead the city back?
I wondered the exact same thing about Nagin! How could they put him right back in place except to reinforce that they were fine with how things were up until the floods and even then, somehow, he was not responsible for his horrific decision making process.
He did not run away with the election. Many who voted for him still maintained their voter registration, and he appeared to be the only one speaking for many of them, so they thought. It may have been the wrong thing, but on some level it is understandable , given a Bush White House, and a Republican Congress, from many of these voters POV and life changing experiences. If the election were today, with a different perspective, could be a different result, I would hope.
Thanks for caring about the city.
We all need to be reminded of the tragedy that is still going on in New Orleans.
Thousands are still seek a return to life as normal there.
true that.
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