Trouble the Water (Deal and Lessin, 2008)
If you’ve been avoiding this one because it’s a documentary about Katrina and therefore serious and depressing, I feel sorry for you. Of course, I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t think documentaries can be entertaining and fun, but that’s neither here nor there. Trouble the Water is both serious and entertaining. Most of the footage is shot by aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott, who survived Katrina by hunkering down in their attic with their extended family members. Kim introduces us to her neighborhood in the 9th Ward with a humorous and confident outlook tinged with uncertainty: she assures us that they’ll all come out of the hurricane okay because they have no choice—no transportation out of the city. Laughing and filming in the face of the disaster, Kim’s attitude won me over early in the film and (to employ an empty and over-used phrase) gave the tragedy a human face. The courage and compassion shown by Kim, Scott, and their family throughout the film provided a moving account of true heroism. As much as the film critiques the government and military for their failure to act both before and after the hurricane, it also left me with the feeling that we’re looking in the wrong places for help. Trouble the Water is a powerful example of the strength of community organizers and the resilience of communities. This film was a great way to kick off my film festival experience.
Rating: 4/5
The Pool (Smith, 2007)
I have the sense that I might have enjoyed this film more if I hadn’t been exhausted from a long day of teaching and emotionally drained from seeing Trouble the Water. It didn’t help that the seats in Wells Hall are anything but comfortable. So I think it’ll take a second viewing before I can really give this an accurate rating. That said, I did rather enjoy the film. Although I felt that it lagged in places, I suspect this was due to the circumstances in which I was seeing it, rather than the film’s pacing and flow, which work to introduce us to its characters and their world. The friendship between Venkatesh, a boy working in a hotel in Goa, India, and Jhangir, who works in a restaurant, is allowed to unfold quite naturally. While the slow pace initially built up my suspense as to why Venkatesh was so obsessed with the pool of a nearby house, eventually I no longer cared why the titular object was so important because I was so drawn into the relationships surrounding it. Though The Pool offers a relatively simple story, these relationships seem quite deep and moving.
Rating: 3.5/5
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