Trouble The Water (2008)

3.0

DOCUMENTARY
U.S. Release Date: 08/22/08
Running Length: 93 Minutes
MPAA Classification: No Rating
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Kimberly Rivers Roberts, Scott Roberts
Director: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
Music: Neil Davidge, Robert del Naja
U.S. Distributor: Zeitgeist Films

Review by: Carter Moulton

03/21/09

Hurricane Katrina. “I’m not leaving because I can’t afford it.” Kimberly Rivers Roberts, a spirited, infectious woman, has nowhere to go. Trouble the Water tells her story. Filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin don’t do much here because most of the film is told through Kimberly’s homemade footage—meaning the camerawork isn’t the greatest, but the storytelling is.

Deal and Lessin simply supplement the raw footage with archive footage of (mostly ignorant) commentary from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, President George W. Bush, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. The film also takes a shot at Michael Brown, director of FEMA—understandably so. He’s repeatedly asked point-blank questions (footage from news telecasts) but is always cut off before answering. He’s left to just stare helplessly into the camera. The film also reflects on what the word “government” means, who is protected by them—the answer: people with money and status—and what each and every American would/should do in a perilous situation.

Photo © Zeitgeist Films

Much of Kimberly’s footage before the storm consists of rants and confident one-liners about outlasting the hurricane. It’s a humorous foundation for the horrors ahead, and Kimberly reveals her intentions of “showing this [story] to the world.” In a beautifully—and luckily—framed shot, we see National Guard trucks darting down the road. It reminded me of War of the Worlds for some reason, the thought of being in your back yard, curious, but not fully aware of the disaster ahead.

Wind slowly creeps into the soundscape, and it begins to rain. And it keeps raining. Many of the events caught on video should be left untouched in this review, as their impact would only be lessened by description. Needless to say, Brian, another man from the New Orleans area, describes it as a real-life “horror movie.” In a half-hilarious, half-surreal scene, a news reporter is shown getting blown off of his feet and carried away by the storm.

About half of the film focuses on Katrina, and the other half focuses on the aftermath and how it impacted Kimberly and Scott’s lifestyle. The film feels a bit long—although this may be due to the technical difficulty during the screening that took about ten minutes to resolve—and could use a tighter cut. One scene, where Kimberly performs a rap song she wrote, carries on for four minutes, and I understand the reason it was included into the film, it’s just a little unnecessary to include the entire routine. Nevertheless, their story is undeniably powerful and goes a long way in telling the influence of human perseverance and faith. Kimberly puts her faith in Jesus many times throughout the documentary—Trouble the Water is derived from the spiritual song “Wade in the Water," which displays both spiritual and literal meanings. With such large chunks of situation, question, and heart throughout, it's impossible to leave Trouble the Water without feeling something.