Touring the Battered Big Easy With Spike Lee Tonight
In April, Spike Lee was set to tell a upbeat, hopeful story in his new documentary "If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise," a film about New Orleans' struggles and hopes as the city rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina.
It tells stories like that of Kimberly Polk, who was featured in Lee's first documentary on the subject "When The Levees Broke." The 2006 film left her mourning at her 5-year-old daughter's funeral. The sequel, according to USA Today, returns as she is about to start a career in nursing and become the first in her family to graduate college. Originally, the documentary was to conclude with the New Orleans' Saints triumphant Super Bowl win in January.
But the movie that will premier on HBO at 9 pm ET tonight tells a very different story than originally planned. Lee had finished filming two weeks before the April 20th Deepwater Horizon disaster, and so he upended the entire enterprise to reflect the spill's fallout and the sharp turn in the region's fortune. Lee's crew visited the Gulf eight times since April, interviewing former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, current mayor Mitch Landrieu, and dozens of those affected. In all, the film contains footage of 300 interviews.
Perhaps the most explosive interview -- or at least, the one making the rounds today -- is the one with Brad Pitt, who has become one of the most public advocates for the Gulf region. Filmmakers asked an angry Pitt whether he'd consider a death sentence for those responsible for the spill. Pitt replied:"I was never for the death penalty before – I am willing to look at it again." Those are some harsh words, and I think they do a good job capturing the complete frustration with the lack of accountability for the disaster so far. Lee himself can barely contain his anger in interviews, and he spreads the blame widely, from BP officials right on up to the Obama administration (as Fox News, of course, is keen to pin its focus.)
Yet I think it's a mistake to zoom-in on the subset of angry words in this film surely designed to inflame emotions and further the blame game. I'm not minimizing the importance of pointing fingers at those at fault here -- that is, of course, a prerequisite for making sure this never happens again. It's just that the 24-7 news media is already more than well-equipped to handle that aspect of the coverage.
As I'm sure Lee knows, the strength of a four-hour documentary is in its power to tell a complicated story, a story that conveys the struggles and emotional resonance in the lives of everyday people. One story like Kimberly Polk's is worth a dozen inflammatory soundbites in spades. According to The Los Angeles Times, Lee's film "undertakes an exhaustive examination of the social, political and economic complexities that continue to cloud recovery efforts in New Orleans." The oil spill is sure to complicate that story even more, and I am pretty hopeful that the film reflects that. Hopefully the headlines of the reviews tomorrow do that as well. I love you Brad Pitt, but enough.
Check out the trailer for the two-night premier.
Photo credit: Hans Reitzema, Wikimedia Commons
Jess Leber
is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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