1—Katrina: Spike Lee’s Point of View

Both Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and When the Levees Broke provoked a strong sense of injustice especially regarding race and class. I found the latter film, which described the destruction of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina, the more troubling because real, innocent people were subjected to death, loss of family and home, and dignity by a natural disaster fueled by an inept political system. The sequence I found the most troubling occurred during the final few minutes of Act II: the silent montage of neglected decaying bodies floating in the flood’s debris. Lee’s rapid sequencing of these images in dead silence heightened the sense of personal loss and tragedy. I cannot imagine anyone—regardless of political or social ideology—not finding that montage disturbing.

Lee’s Katrina film, although powerful, seems colored by his ideology on race and class. A common theme runs through the films we viewed is that blacks are economically and socially suppressed by a corrupt political system. That seemed to be the prevailing argument throughout When the Levees Broke. Lee focused on the suffering of New Orleans’ black population and an inept response by people of authority—the politicians, disaster officials, and the military—without providing relevant context. I reached this opinion after viewing another film that provided a more nuanced view of Katrina and its impact on New Orleans: PBS Frontline’s “The Storm” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/view/). The Frontline film documented Katrina’s devastation and inadequate response by public officials, but, in contrast to Lee’s account, Frontline probed into the reasons for the real and perceived chaos fostered by those with power. Especially revealing was FEMA’s loss of autonomy, funding, and professional management during the G. W. Bush administration.

A common definition of “documentary” is a film, television, or radio program that provides a factual report or record of a real event. By that definition, When the Levees Broke might be a valid expression of Lee’s point of view on race and class, but, in contrast to Frontline’s “The Storm,” the film fell short of being a first-rate documentary.