nunya freakinbidness If you are looking for a documentary about a waste of air (former drug dealer, aspiring rap artist - enough said) that you can barely understand due to slurry ghetto speak, then this documentary is for you. This woman had a rough life, blah de blah de blah. She has done nothing to improve on it, which is what this documentary proves. Yet she is all "trust in God," while following none of the basic rules of how to be a good person. It's sickening, and incredibly sad. The pivotal moment, at least for me, is her and her crew returning to their home after Katrina, camera rolling and good teeth flashing, to find their dog has survived the flood. They abandoned their dog, people. And want you to believe there's a respect for life here as she one millionth of a percent worries about her neighbors and where their bodies might be. They then bitch about the National Guard not being there as soldiers walk through their backyard, and point out that only the ASPCA has been there. Maybe because of people like you, sweetheart. Perhaps I think too rationally, but the two things people grab when fleeing from disaster are their pets and their family photographs. She leaves both behind, more focused on that camera rolling on her and her own sweet bum. She barely acknowledges the dog, who is sadly so happy to see his betrayers, and kisses the photographs she left behind that managed to survive, but weren't good enough to take with her. There is no redemption here. There is no love, there is only a want for money and personal gain. Just a bad person who demands that FEMA takes care of her while she can't look out for her own. Skip this waste of film unless you are in the mood to get really, really mad at how disgusting human beings can be, especially in the wake of a tragedy.

Lee Eisenberg Everyone saw footage of Hurricane Katrina on the news. Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" dealt extensively with the storm and the lack of response. "Trouble the Water" consists mostly of camcorder footage shot by New Orleans resident Kimberly Roberts before during and after the storm. Partly about the hurricane, the documentary also poses the question of what America is supposed to be all about if it lets this happen to thousands of people, most of them poor and black.Hurricane Katrina, like the September 11 attacks (whose tenth anniversary is in a few days), is something that should always be remembered, maybe more so. It showed how detached the government had become from its most vulnerable citizens. The collapse of the levees and subsequent flooding of the Lower Ninth Ward became an excuse to dismantle New Orleans's public school system and replace it with vouchers. The documentary is even more relevant now, after Louisiana got a second strike in the form of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Michael Fargo It begins as a lark. A video camera is switched on to record an approaching storm. We get to meet the smiling faces of videographers as they laugh and cajole. We on the other hand know what's about to confront them. Or at least we think we do.This is a magnificent use of home video built in to a rage against poverty and illiteracy and racism. You can blame the victims here all you want, but image after image, scene after scene the plight of being an African American in this country is shoved in their faces...and in ours.The lives of this family in the Lower 9th Ward are vividly drawn by themselves. When they confront what is outside, i.e., the post-segregation South, we are startled at the condescension, scorn and devaluation of human lives...if your skin is the wrong color.The people here have no apologies for their lives. They lay it out and I suspect many will resist what struggles they face. But scene after scene, you can't walk away from this film without a better understanding of racism in America.The stubborn will ask "Why didn't they leave when they were supposed to?" And this film records "How were they supposed to?" and "Where were they going to go?" In the face of it all, those who survive manage here to triumph. While the footage of the disaster is why most people will buy the ticket to see this, it's the struggle to survive, not only Katrina, that will last in the viewer's mind.

tt39966 I just saw this film tonight, at it's opening in Hollywood, and encourage this to go nationwide. It breaks my heart at how our corrupt government completely ignored the cries of the people. It's almost as if the government was looking for a reason to destroy the population of the 9th Ward in New Orleans (i.e.: a form of genocide). This is a very powerful study of the devastation from the "ground" floor -- thanks to Kimberly Rivers Roberts (and her husband Scott) home videos.During the closing credits, the filmmakers showed what the current status of all the characters -- including the Captain of the Naval Base and his Presidential Commendation for protecting the (disbanned) base from possible terrorist activity. I'm a high school Social Studies teacher in Los Angeles and can't wait for the DVD so I can share this with my students.