documentary on their experiences of disaster and abandonment and survival as they leave the city (they couldn't afford to evacuate before the storm hit) and eventually return (they couldn't afford to start a new life in Memphis).I wasn't sure what to say about the film beyond that it's very powerful until L and I paused to read Manohla Dargis' review from the New York Times which was displayed on an easel in front of the IFC. What Dargis said was entirely wrong - commenting on Kim's being "larger than life" and eventually concluding that she's an artiste on the make. She is full of life, and an artist, yes, but the film isn't (nor was her own documentary work) about her, let alone about her as an exceptional person. We see what she filmed, but it was of her and her husband helping various neighbors and family, being helped by others, surviving with grace and a lot of faith - and nothing in the film implies that the same thing wasn't going on all over the Lower Ninth Ward.
Here's the other thing Dargis got wrong. She observes: "Ms. Roberts ... often puts her faith in God but tends to take matters into her own capable hands." As if these two things are distinct and indeed constrast! "Putting her faith in God, Ms. Roberts takes matters into her own capable hands" would be closer to true, and the film is worth seeing already as a remarkable picture of how that plays out. As one of my regular web haunts puts it, Dargis doesn't "get religion," part of the whole culture of care (however otherwise devastated by poverty) of the poor New Orleans neighborhoods decimated by Katrina overlooked in a review that's interested in exceptional individuals.
Now 2 million have evacuated as Gustav approaches. (This time the city has provided assistance for those who don't have cars.) Let's pray that it does little damage.
