Film

Kamp Katrina (2007)

Director: Ashley Sabin, David Redmon

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleanians Ms. Pearl and David turned their backyard into a tent village and gave their new tenants construction jobs. Among those they help is Kelley, who was a month pregnant when the hurricane hit. In the sanitized Dateline version, David and Ms. Pearl would be neighborhood saints presented for our edification, and the birth of Kelley’s baby would give a nice, hopeful ending to the story. This ain’t Dateline. David and Ms. Pearl have good intentions but they’ve also got rough edges and foul mouths. And due to Kelley’s regular crack usage, her baby is born addicted to cocaine.

David and Ms. Pearl are not paper heroes, and the people they help soon fall into drinking, drugs, squabbling and theft. Redmon and Sabin display all of this without comment, and simply showing without telling conveys far more complexity than any preachy narration. These people aren’t perfect, but they’ve had their lives taken away from them. Redmon and Sabin remind us of how good we have it and force us to ask if we’d do any better in similar circumstances.

Think of this as a supplement to Spike Lee’s miniseries When the Levees Broke, which offers a panoramic take on Katrina. Redmon and Sabin stay closer to the ground, capturing the struggles of a few people, warts and all. It isn’t pretty, but it’s a necessary and compelling piece of reportage.

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