Intensely gripping footage of the calamitous Hurricane Katrina and the compelling story of survivors Kimberly and Scott Roberts make this a must see documetary.
Trouble the Water (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 67
Fresh: 65
Rotten:2
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Consensus: This incredible documentary displays the tragedy and mismanagement of Katrina along with the heroism of strangers and survivors.
Theatrical Release:Aug 22, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $146,384
Synopsis: How is it that Hurricane Katrina managed to revolutionize American attitudes about the environment, but somehow the very people most devastated by the storm have become refugees in their own... How is it that Hurricane Katrina managed to revolutionize American attitudes about the environment, but somehow the very people most devastated by the storm have become refugees in their own country, and their experiences have been all but forgotten? In Trouble the Water, this voiceless population becomes vibrantly human as documentarians Tia Lessin and Carl Deal engage with native New Orleans filmmaker and musician Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband, Scott, to create a powerful, partly autobiographical survival story that reflects many of the lives of the people of New Orleans. Kimberly's chilling home footage of her hometown before, during, and after the storm provides a petrifying account that essentially rewrites most of the media coverage of the disaster. Broadcast news stories of rampant looting are transformed into ingeniously heroic tales of survival, while recent stories of a thriving recovery in New Orleans are exposed as a false bill of goods sold on the backs of the disenfranchised. Trouble the Water makes unapologetically clear that Hurricane Katrina rages on as an unnatural disaster of governmental and journalistic neglect. What is also truly amazing is that the levee protecting Kimberly's humanity against this devastating storm remains firmly grounded in her deep-rooted love for New Orleans, her family, and her art, and her enduring faith in her fellow human beings. --copy; Sundance Film Festival [More]
Director: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
Director: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
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Reviews for Trouble the Water
Trouble the Water is a truly gobsmacking document, but it's Kimberly Roberts who carries the film.
'God's gonna trouble the water,' goes the chorus from the African-American spiritual that gives Trouble the Water its title, but no deity is to blame for the tide of bureaucratic bungling and inhumanity the movie reveals.
The person at the centre emerges as a force of nature unto herself. Meet, and prepare to be inspired by, Kimberly Rivers Roberts.
Essential, startling and distressing insight into what it was like to be in the eye of the Katrina storm if you were a poor, black resident of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans on Monday August 29 2005.
Trouble The Water tells a fascinating story with some amazing imagery, shot when the floods were at their height, but somehow loses something in the translation.
The footage – edited and augmented by Michael Moore’s collaborators Tia Lessin and Carl Deal – is unpolished, but the stories and commentary are as inspirational as they are harrowing.
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's movie about Hurricane Katrina is, in its way, quite as powerful as Spike Lee's massive documentary on the subject.
I could call the film an important document, but it's far more rowdy and vital, and amazingly unpretentious, than that makes it sound.
Trouble the Water employs Kim Roberts’ startling camcorder footage to reveal how little New Orleans prepared its citizens for the coming disaster.
Later, unfortunately, the film’s energy drains like the waters, leaving a wrack of tired folk wisdoms and ear-injuring rap songs.
Riveting, emotionally engaging and frequently astonishing documentary that tells an important story and will make you laugh, cry and seethe with rage.
The film is a lasting document on the subjects of Hurricane Katrina, tragedy and bureaucratic incompetence.
For the 3rd anniversary of Katrina comes a gripping point of view about the disaster and its continuing impact on the people of New Orleans that has not been seen before.
You can't help wanting -- and maybe needing -- to read into her indomitable spiritedness something like a reason for hope. For her, for other Katrina survivors, for all of us.
Trouble the Water doesn't merely bring its characters to the edge of the abyss. It watches them fall in -- and then, amazingly, climb out.
Trouble the Water is probably the best of the films made on the subject. That's because the film concentrates on a few specific stories rather than trying to provide a comprehensive examination of its subject matter.
It's not quite a Grapes of Wrath for our times, but Trouble the Water does give a voice to people America didn't see or listen to before Katrina.
Latest News for Trouble the Water
December 03, 2008:
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"Frozen River" was the big winner at Tuesday's 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, taking home two of the six prizes, including best feature. More...
November 19, 2008:
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With awards season just around the corner, it's time to start handicapping the various Oscar races -- and the Los Angeles Times has kicked things off with a look at the 15... More...
August 28, 2008:
Raw, unfiltered and expletive-laced, but a brutally-honest flick guaranteed to give you an unsanitized picture of what life was like for the least fortunate folks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. ![]()
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August 21, 2008:
Shocking Hurricane Katrina documentary created from real-time home movies shot by storm victim. ![]()
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