When The Levees Broke

This past weekend I watched “When The Levees Broke”, Spike Lee’s documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Overall it was pretty good. The filmmakers included different points of view, but of course the film was slanted towards the “racial perspective,” i.e., that the government’s slow response was due to the victims being predominantly black. But they interviewed government officials and others who disagreed, and they also had plenty of interviews with white victims as well. It was a lot more objective than I expected.

And of course it was heartbreaking. There was a lot of footage of people standing on their rooftops, waiting days for help that in many cases did not come. The filmmakers did not shy away from displaying the subsequent rotting corpses either. One of the things that really struck me were the awful conditions at the Superdome. Dramatically insufficient medical care for the sick and elderly, and insufficient food and potable water. Overall a massive governmental failure resulting in many needless deaths.

I was bought this by the old housemates before I moved here. I had better watch the DVD then…