The storm gathered.
New Orleans resident Kimberly Rivers Roberts had just bought a video camera on the street for $10. With no filmmaking experience but feeling something in her bones, she let the camera roll.
The result is the 2008 documentary "Trouble the Water." It has been out for months, but it still haunts me.
The storm speaks through Roberts' camera. You can feel its power-- and its devastation. When you hear that wind howling down the street, if you don't believe in God, I feel sorry for you in the Next Life.
This film is rough. Raw. Unscripted.
Not the sweetly crafted words of a news anchor a thousand miles away, with the facial expression of concern, also sweetly crafted. No.
This is not even the story from the point of view of the rescue helicopters hovering over desperate people on roofs.
This is the story from the point of view of the people on the roofs. And under the roofs who did not make it.
It is also the story of everyday people with that most critical resource: the skill to survive, and to even care about others, in the face of one of the most horrible-- if not the most horrible-- catastrophe of their lives.
In the storm's wake, we see death, destroyed lives, scattered families. And Kimberly Rivers Roberts keeps shooting.
The film was nominated for an Oscar, and won the Grand Jury Prize for documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival.
There is no easy solution here. No happy ending. But when the lights go up, you will have experienced filmmaking as powerful as the storm.
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