“Trouble the Water,” which won the grand jury prize for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. When the directors, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, headed to Louisiana in early September 2005, they were planning to document the return of National Guard troops from Iraq and had no intention of filming anyone directly affected by the hurricane. But that changed when Ms. Lessin and Mr. Deal met an African-American couple, Kimberly Roberts and Scott Roberts. Ms. Lessin said she and Mr. Deal, who are white, instinctively recognized that they had found their new subjects in these charismatic former residents of the Ninth Ward.
Ms. Roberts, an aspiring rapper had a secondhand camcorder, was taping and narrating the events as they unfolded. This footage is riveting and speaks volumes about people who had no means to evacuate and assumed they could ride it out. What happen to them after the hurricane and how they were treated is sad and mad me angry that this could happen in this country.
Ms. Roberts is a poet as well as a rapper. In one scene she did a song she wrote that was emotionally touching and profound. Her voice is one we should hear more from and I hope she gets an opportunity to be heard.
