Monday, November 23, 2009
OUTSIDE THE SAFETY NET
Today's movie was the documentary
Kim Roberts, a resident of New Orleans 9th Ward took videos throughout Katrina and months afterward.
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal take this "footage" and weave in newsreels as well as additional film of Kim's family and friends to create an incredible experience of the flood from a first hand perspective.
We go to the attic with the family and pets as the water rises. We watch as they save people and add them to their "ark". We watch them flee from the city and then return and recover.
The emotional wallop of this film is quite remarkable.
One's anger and compassion are reenergized by what is seen here. It is one hell of a film.
Oddly they do not make the "story" chronological. In dropping the tick-tock quality of such endeavors they are able to get a bundle of reactions in one place and hold our face in the situation. There is no backing away.
There is plenty of sadness to go around but there is also a relentless ability to keep on going, to forge ahead, to have gratitude for gifts given.
This is a film about indomitable spirits.
I would not mind watching this again. Perhaps with subtitles although the makers have salted enough in to get through the N'Olean's accent. Nicely.
We know what is happening anyway even when we can't get the words exactly.
I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
