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KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis New Orleans is the Lost City of America. Rod Amis, publisher of G21: The World's Magazine, once believed one of the best bartenders in New Orleans, tells the story like no one else could. A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need.
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Established on the WWW 1996 Issue #458: LOVE FOR SALE DAY ONE MPHUTHUMI NTABENI, South Africa JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. It contains more jokes than not. G21 FICTION JOHN KARANGA KARIUKI, Kenya IRISH EYES MATTIE LENNON, Ireland ON FILM BRAD BALFOUR, United States SMOKE & MIRRORS ROD AMIS, G21 World HQ THE PREVIOUS EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
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G21 INTERVIEWS: SPIKE LEE - In his second interview with the controversial auteur, BRAD BALFOUR talks about the HBO documentary on the disaster in New Orleans, "When the Levees Broke". View a trailer of the film here.
New York, NY, USA - With a remarkable career that spans 20 films over 20 years, di rector Spike Lee has tackled one his biggest challenges - making "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." This four-hour documentary details the lives of people affected by the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina last year in New Orleans.
This natural catastrophe was made far worse by a series of cascading government ineptitudes by everyone from the local leaders to the national government. As a result, people died and thousands were made homeless. Days after the cataclysm, Spike contacted HBO's Sheila Nevins - who had financed his previous doc, "4 Little Girls," and said he wanted to make some kind of record of what was going on down there.
So three months after Katrina struck, Lee, cameraman Cliff Charles, and a small crew made the first of eight trips to New Orleans to do interviews and shoot footage. New Orleans was in turmoil and Spike - who has made a career of applying his vision to socio-political critiques of America through such films as "Malcolm X," "Do The Right Thing," "Summer of Sam," and "25th Hour" among others - found rich material, a wide range of subjects and various opinions to choose from for not just a two-hour film but a four-hour documentary mini-series. Originally broadcast on HBO in fall 2006, this epic film has now been released as a sumptuous DVD.
G21: Now that the film is out on DVD - was it interesting to go through it again with the goal of compiling a DVD?
SL: Yes, because I had to go through all the footage again and put it together. And I said, man, this is good stuff. I forgot.
G21: With all the extra footage, how did you choose what to put on the extra DVD?
SL: Well, it's the same thinking that applied to the first four hours. We wanted to take the best material, and shape it. Give it a narrative. Tell a story. So, the release of the DVD is a three-disk and there are the extras... One of the extra things is Act Five, which is an additional hour and 45 minutes of footage that was not in the original four hours.
G21: What was in Act Five?
SL: Good stuff. The only reason why it wasn't included was because we couldn't get any more time. [The version broadcast on] HBO went from two to four hours. So that was like the limit. They [usually] don't allocate that much time for a documentary in their schedule.
G21: Was Act Five more in depth as to what actually took place?
SL: No, I think we covered that. There were other aspects covered. We got the reason why in the first four hours.
G21: Are there plans to come back to New Orleans and show what has happened to some of these people, like the young man who was walking to Algiers and got shot?
SL: With the addition of Act Five it's now six hours and still incomplete. So, we'll want to stay with it.
G21: You have six hours but you want to do even more?
SL: Well, what I'm saying is that the film is incomplete because what's happened down there is incomplete. So I would like to stay with this - maybe come back in another year or so - and try to do another look at it. Post-Katrina - two, three years looking back. How much has changed, or not changed.
You don't know what's going to happen. It will be interesting to see where people are in two or three years. Whatever happened to Phyllis? She's in a FEMA trailer. Will she be in a FEMA trailer two or three years from now? How many people are going to move back from 46 other states? And what are they moving back to?
G21: What was the toughest thing in structuring the overall film?
SL: We didn't have a script so we had to find structure. I had a great editor. Supervising editor and co-producer Sam Pollard. He went through hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage not only of the interviews I conducted, but the archival footage, the newsreel footage, and the footage we got from citizens of New Orleans who shot things on their own cameras.
G21: In making documentaries, does this energy change the kind of features you want to do? Or are they two parallel things you do?
SL: I don't try to put any distinctions or parameters whether, like someone asked me before, do I wear a different hat when I do documentary films compared to narrative films - and the answer is no.
G21: Do you think over the years you have changed as a filmmaker? It seems through the press that they are rediscovering you with the success of "Inside Man," and now with the Katrina documentary...
SL: I don't really worry about that stuff. If I worried about that stuff then we wouldn't have been able to do the films that we've done. We've done 20 films in 20 years so I've been too busy to worry about that stuff.
G21: But have you changed?
SL: Yeah, I hope so.
G21: How do you feel the racial climate has changed since 20 years ago?
SL: It's basically the same.
G21: When you make a film like this do you find yourself revisiting some of the people afterwards or keeping in touch?
SL: Yeah, I'm in touch with a lot of people.
G21: And what have you found out?
SL: They're still struggling. It's still a daily struggle.
G21: You've interviewed New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. What is he trying to put into place to help make things better?
SL: Well, whatever it is, it's not working.
G21: So he is trying to do something but it is not working?
SL: Whatever he is doing is not working. Whatever [the Governor of Louisiana Kathleen] Blanco's doing is not working. Whatever Bush and the federal administration is doing is not working. All this money that's been promised has not reached into the people's hands. So we are stuck somewhere.
G21: Is there hope that the results of the mid-term elections might make a difference?
SL: I hope so.
G21: There are a few films that are being filmed down there; that could bring in money. Would that help?
SL: Yeah, but that's not that's not going to get into the regular folks. You have the fact that "Deja Vu" was shot in New Orleans, but did not impact the pocketbook of Phyllis LeBlanc.
G21: How much money did you personally give to Katrina relief funds?
SL: Me? I'll have to check my tax records for that.
G21: In doing a film like this were you like a teacher?
SL: Well, people told us that they found out stuff they did not know. That for four hours I hope they find that there is stuff in there that they did not know. If you have four hours of stuff that everybody knows then something is wrong.
G21: Obviously people thought you knew what you were talking about because otherwise they wouldn't have let you do four hours.
SL: Yes. HBO was great, it was wonderful.
G21: Did you have to negotiate the fours hours, did you have to push for it?
SL: No. Originally it was only supposed to be two hours. And then we knew we needed more and so Sheila Nevins went to Jackie Glover, who ultimately got to Chris Albrecht who runs HBO, and he had the good sense to say let's make it go from two to four hours.
G21: And what was the budget for the film?
SL: We went from two to four million dollars.
G21: The bet paid off critically. Did it pay off in getting people to watch?
SL: Oh yes. It got rated most watched documentary they've had ever. And that's not including HBO OnDemand.
G21: In the fifth act you feature a man who had been arrested. Why did you think it was important to bring him into the film?
SL: Well he was arrested before. There were many people who were arrested or in jail prior to the breech of the levees. And some are still in jail now because records got lost and the whole judicial system is messed up. But recor ds are lost and people forget who's in for what and it's chaos. Lawyers and the D.A. and stuff like that left, the whole infra-structure of the city is gone.
G21: There was such a diversity of the subjects in the film; how did you find these people?
SL: The majority were found by Judy Aley who was a researcher. She went down before me and just walked around, walked up to people and asked them their story.
G21: One thing that's really painful about what happened to New Orleans is that people who were music producers had a lot of things destroyed. Historical items were lost in the process; did you know anyone who personally lost something like that, their collections?
SL: Well, there are couple that are photographers in the film and I think it was like 100,000 negatives, or their entire life's work, gone forever.
G21: It's hard to imagine that your stuff could be wiped out like that.
SL: Gone.
G21: Was there something that happened while down there that personally stood out or was revelatory to you?
SL: No, it was all like that. The one thing that surprised me going in was that I didn't think there would be that much humor that ended up being in there. But we were just trying to capture the spirit of the people. It was one of those things that I have to laugh to keep from crying. And some said they were still crying despite that they were laughing.
G21: Do you have further plans, besides art, to do maybe a march or getting people with like minds together who are really committed to helping Katrina relief?
SL: No. I have not planned any marches yet. I mean, hopefully you do something, it mobilizes to want to do that. But I'm not leading a march.
G21: So you're leading them by doing this film and they can take it up from there?
SL: Uh-huh. We'll see.
G21: You mentioned in an interview on HBO that Americans have a very short attention span. Do you think you have to keep pushing the message because people will forget what happened?
SL: Definitely there are people who have forgotten what happened in New Orleans. And there's the other group that thinks progress has been done because they bought into the photo-ops of President Bush when he went down there for the one-year anniversary, [the] reopening of the Superdome and the Saints winning; and they see a bunch of people in the French Quarter and think everything is back to business. And that's not the case.
G21: Some journalists have been saying that the recent mid-term elections were affected by Iraq and the Mark Foley revelations - they really sold Katrina short. Do you think it played a big part in people's vote as well?
SL: It played a very big part. And I made that same observation that people are coming out with these statements. They totally left Katrina out of it. But I think it was the double whammy thing, really I think [it was] more that Mark Foley than Katrina or Iraq, that's what turned the tide.
G21: What would you have done differently if you had been mayor of New Orleans when the hurricane hit?
SL: There have been many studies, as you saw in the film, of what would happen if a category five hurricane hit New Orleans - not that many people paid heed to it - and in reality Katrina missed New Orleans. It was only a category three so it was the breeches of levees that really brought about the destruction. Anybody who had been Mayor should have worked on the levee system because people knew throughout that it was faulty, and still today it's faulty. Thank God hurricane season is leaving in a couple of weeks because they got through it. But they might not; it's like rolling dice - they keep thinking they are going to dodge a bullet.
G21: When singer Kanye West came on television and said his infamous statement about Bush's lack of concern for the African-Americans in New Orleans, it was the end of any action put behind it. Do you feel that the hip-hop community didn't do enough to put any action behind his or anyone else's words?
SL: Well, there were several benefit concerts and stuff like that. I know Jay-Z has a song on his new album that about how the United States deserted the citizens of the Gulf region. But very few people stood up. They talk about how they wear their platinum chains all the time or... it was disappointing more people didn't stand up.
G21: What was your opinion of celebrities going to New Orleans with camera crews as people pulled their valuables out of [the muck].
SL: Like who? If you can't be specific then I don't know what examples you're talking about.
G21: There was one in particular, was it Matthew McConaughey? There was a whole camera crew and there were people yelling for them to take their cameras down and just help.
SL: I am not familiar with that. Maybe I'm stupid. I don't know any better.
G21: Do you think that standing up for New Orleans will make a difference? Is that why you are taking risks that others would not, getting behind the people there?
SL: Behind what? I don't really see that it was a big risk doing a film like this. What's the risk? People can have that opinion, but I didn't see any risk involved.
G21: The risk of being honest and straight about something that was very sensitive for the government. [Talking about that] would be a risk in itself because of the government reaction and the backlash you could get.
SL: I never thought about it.
G21: The people highlighted in the film; will they get any of the proceeds from the film?
SL: Well they're still waiting for the DVD. That's something that HBO is going to do for the people of the film.
G21: How bittersweet was it to go through the Mardi Gras where they were trying to lift themselves back up in spirit?
SL: It wasn't bittersweet at all - it was fun. Everybody was having fun. People understood that the world wasn't going to change the next day when they woke up but for the moment people were having fun. A lot of people who were evacuated are coming home for homecoming to see friends and family who are living elsewhere.
G21: How do you think students should get involved with all the different hurricane Katrina relief efforts?
SL: Students should go down there and work, and many universities and colleges, for spring break they go down there. Go to houses and just help and volunteer.
G21: When will you be down there next?
SL: Sometime in December.
G21: You inked a deal with NBC to do a series. What's it about?
SL: We are in development. It's called "NOLA," and it takes place in post-Katrina, post-levee breeched New Orleans. Like today people just trying to put their lives back together.
G21: There's been a lot of discussion of you doing a "School Daze II" - what is the status of that?
SL: Well something is, I'd like to get to it eventually but it's not immediate.
G21: Are there any genres you want to explore like science fiction or something else that you haven't touched on?
SL: I'd like to do a musical one day.
G21: Oh, that's right. A musical, of course. Do you have anything specific you want to work on, or periods or styles?
SL: I don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing "Dreamgirls," Have you guys seen it yet? It should be good; it looks good.
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