Filed under: News
In 2006, director Spike Lee created an astonishing record of the cataclysmic effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans with his sweeping documentary 'When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.'
An intimate glimpse of thousands of lives disrupted and destroyed, the documentary earned universal critical acclaim, as well as two Emmys and a Peabody Award for its powerful depiction of a tragic societal and political breakdown.
Five years later, Lee returns to New Orleans, where he finds a patchwork of hope and heartache just as a new disaster unfolds in 'If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise.'
In early 2010, almost a half-decade after the brutal devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, Lee returned to the Crescent City to see how the ambitious plans to reinvent it were playing out.
In all, more than 300 people shared their stories of reconstructing unraveled lives with Lee, including the mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, former Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, historian Douglas Brinkley, actors Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, Mayor George Schloegel of Gulfport, and community organizer Tanya Harris.
Long-time New Orleans residents Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, Kimberly Polk, Shelton "Shakespeare" Alexander and others -- whose compelling testimony contributed to the power of 'When The Levees Broke' -- provided updates on their lives. Lee and his crew also went to Houston to speak to some of the approximately 150,000 evacuees who have remained there, unable to return to their shattered lives in the gulf.
HBO will show the film in two parts, starting tonight at 9 p.m.
It will be later broadcast in its entirety on Aug. 29, which will be the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the breaching of the levees.