Anyone who has ever seen a Spike-Lee-directed film knows that there is an obvious message being bullhorned at the audience, usually about how African Americans are being taken advantage of. In his documentary, When the Levees Broke, Lee’s point-of-view is not focusing so much on “who is the victim?” but rather “who is responsible?” And with that question in mind, Lee seems to show that many people were responsible for Katrina’s devastating aftermath.
The documentary is arranged not so much with a big sense of coherency but rather a collage of disaster and cultural importance that the city encompasses. For example, Kayne West’s comment on how “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” seemed to come out of nowhere, as did one New Orleans native’s less-than-approving message to Dick Cheney. But the people in the documentary (including Mr. West and the Rev. Al Sharpton) thought both comments were valid.
There are countless references to the late and shoddy way in which FEMA performed their duty to rescue the city. There are many shots of FEMA members checking over evacuated homes; they do not look to be the most thorough house-checks, and one member of the Louisiana Hot 8 Brass Band seems sure that there are still dead bodies in the houses.
Lee also shows the media’s responsibility falling through the cracks as they referred to the evacuated citizens as “refugees” time and time again (it is a perfect example of one news station using the term, and then all other stations jumping on the wagon). The quotations Lee has selected show his viewpoint: it’s outrageous to refer to the evacuees as “refugees” because they were tax-paying citizens just before the disaster. Now, it’s as if they don’t have a country, and Lee implies that their country’s government is not looking out for them.
Although I only saw one portion of the film, it seems that Lee is trying to finally attribute responsibility to the horrors of the hurricane. We all know how devastating the aftermath was, and indeed Lee gives many, many terrifying and truly saddening images and soundbites to hammer in the fact that Katrina was horrible and conditions still are horrible in New Orleans (viewers become audience members at the funeral of a little Crescent City five-year-old). However, all of us knew it was terrible just from watching the news. Lee is showing that at the end of the day, you cannot simply pass the buck to Mother Nature.