Director Johnatan Demme obtained over 200 hours of footage of the Katrina aftermath, and the resulting documentary, Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward will air for five consecutive nights on Tavis Smiley's PBS show beginning this evening. You can check for times in your area by clicking here. The series concludes on June 1.
Demme's documentary focuses exclusively on the residents of the Lower 9th Ward, tracking their progress for over a year as they try to rebuild their lives and their community and return to some semblance of normalcy. Demme says he wanted to remind people that even though the waters have subsided, people are still struggling.
He's not wrong. Once the shock of the initial flood fades from our TV screens and our memories, it's easy to forget that those affected by the disaster have to keep dealing with the event, whether the media is there or not.
I've placed a few clips from the documentary below.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-28-2007 @ 2:59PM
Jon said...
I'm glad that more and more documentaries are coming out on how the Gulf Coast has and is still dealing with the reality of rebuilding their lives after Katrina. While this is a start, there really is a need for human effort there. There is still SO much left to do. People shouldn't forget that this happened. And rather than sit around and play the blame game, they should get up, get out and get to the Gulf Coast and help out.
Until you go and see it for yourself, the documentaries and the news footage will not do it justice. Flying over the area, it doesn't even look like you're in America anymore when you see it. I just got back home from a trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, volunteering and working directly with families afflicted by the hurricanes. And I gotta say, the people are grateful for the volunteers from all around the nation and even the world who go there to assist in the rebuilding.
Thank you for posting this.
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