In Spike Lee’s documentary, When the Levees Broke, Lee focuses on the horrendous aftermath for victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as on the failures of FEMA and the Bush administration. This documentary, while plainly giving a one-sided perspective, is by no means, wrong in its approach. If the media was insensitively able to refer to these black victims as “refugees,” then Lee’s documentary is, in many ways, providing a more detailed understanding of the other, unheard, perspective. One of the more memorable quotes in response to the term, “refugee,” was: “What, when the storm came, it blew away our citizenship too?”
This film is poignant and heart-wrenching in portraying the lives of post-Katrina Americans. Near the end of Act III, a mother’s agony towards losing her child is but only one of many tragedies that befall residents of New Orleans. But what is most disturbing in all this is the lack of government help, a thought that is echoed throughout the entire documentary. Even after months had passed since the hurricane, debris continued to litter the streets.
In the documentary, Lee showed the beauty and the strength of victims of the natural disaster as well. What I found so amazing was that regardless of the damage done to the city, the traumatic experiences they all faced, when Mardi Gras came, residents still came together and celebrated.