WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE

1. WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE By: Alayna Morales

3. The key issue • The main issue in this film was the natural disaster Hurricane Katrina. It showed the devastating effects of this fateful event through interviews and live footage. • This film was dedicated solely to express the survivor’s stories and political issues during this calamity. It was controversial due to the opinions stated about the national government’s response to natural disasters. • This film also touched on the issues of discrimination of class within the nation.

5. Cinematography • This documentary contained many interviews with survivors along with family members of victims involved in this disaster. It truly stated their side of the story. For once it was a breath of fresh air to hear the true insight of the victim’s and not the media’s readers digest version of an event. It was raw and uncut and it made it very easy to get emotionally attached to the men and women speaking. You felt what they felt…all the pain they endured was so hard to fathom. • This film also included live footage and photos of the devastating after math. So many dead bodies and homes just drowned in the water. No one had any chance of saving anything of importance. In one moment everything they had and ever needed was gone. Seeing everything was truly and deeply saddening. It made you wonder how you would survive if something like this happened to you. • It added to the quality of the film because it did not hold back any information. It made it overwhelmingly hard to not cry after seeing such tragedy, but it did help the viewer get a TRUE understanding of the event.

7. Biases • The only bias that I noticed was that the film was geared towards the many survivors stories and memories of this event. It did not show the government's defense mechanisms against the opinions of the people. • I think that the filmmaker did this due to the fact that this was not a story to be fought about I think it was just made to show the survivor story. It was meant to be an emotional and serious film because it was such a serious range of events.

8. Questions • The few lingering questions I had were: • Why did it take so long to hear the voices of the people and why was the response to this event such a slow one? It was absolutely dreadful so why didn’t the government help them sooner? • I wonder if the government would have anything to say about this…If they did what could they possibly say or do that would benefit the people now? I just want to know the governments excuse for it’s actions.

9. links to this event • http://articles.cnn.com/2006-02-13/politics/katrina.congress_1_katrina-response-national-emergency-management-association-homeland-security?_s=PM:POLITICS • http://www.urban.org/publications/900897.html • http://www.globalissues.org/article/564/hurricane-katrina

11. Impact • This film truly touched my heart, I honestly can’t say that about many films. It really was the first one in a long time that made me cry. I was so shocked to see the aftermath and the high tide of emotions really touched me. It made me think of the time when all my family had to leave Louisiana to come stay with us during the storm. I can’t imagine how scary it was to think about how when they came back they might not have anything to come home to and the friends they once had may not be there. I honestly believe that this movie was very important because it finally gave the survivors a name and face…they weren’t just “the refugees” they all had their own name and story. They finally shared their pain and it wasn’t that of the media’s it was theirs. • This film truly was a learning experience for many. It made you have a more open minded learning process. I think it is beneficial to many scholars to let themselves feel emotion rather than just read a book about an event. It made me want to always have that sense of knowledge from more people’s experiences. It was a clear visual of something and something to not be taken lightly.