GFF 2011: Harry Shearer

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and the world was bombarded with images and reports on the "natural" disaster that had occurred. Yet after a visit to the city by President Obama in 2010 in which he discussed the terrible events, Harry Shearer was compelled to action. “It wasn't a natural disaster, it was a man-made disaster caused by a federal government agency who had been told to protect the city from hurricane damage”, he states with utter certainty.

Shearer may be better known as Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap, or Mr Burns from The Simpsons, but his credentials extend far beyond good comic timing. An author, director, playwright, and radio host, among other things, The Big Uneasy is his first film since 2002 and his first foray into documentary filmmaking. As a New Orleans resident, he was shocked to return to his city several months after the disaster to find that “the damage was still everywhere, and it was quite amazing”.

Having already interviewed several key engineers and Maria Garzino, a whistleblower from within the aforementioned agency, for his radio show, Shearer realised that the full story of how a hurricane could result in such a devastating crisis had not been told. “We believe the emotional stories are more compelling for our audience, and so whether it's the news media or Spike Lee [who made When the Levees Broke, in which he interviews citizens of the city in the aftermath of the hurricane], the emotional stories have been told and told and told, but people still don't understand what caused the suffering”, Shearer says.

Rather than focus on the much-publicised human element, Shearer focuses his documentary on the agency that failed to protect the city, and the media that failed to report on it. He is disparaging towards the latter, arguing that “the people of New Orleans know what actually happened, but I don't think the rest of the people in the world have any idea that the media has failed them because so far no one's come along and said, 'excuse me, that's not what happened'. So I felt it was a job that nobody was doing.”

Shearer reflects on the state of the city now, but the silver lining still contains a cloud. “In many ways it's a better city, a smaller city, but you still have the question of what happened to all those people [who were evacuated and have not returned]. Then we have the more over-arching question, is the city any safer? It's very vibrant, and very alive. The idea that it was going to be a kind of shell of its former self, I don't think that turned out to be very accurate.”

So what are his intentions with The Big Uneasy? To shine some light on an event that the media selectively covered, and to make an interesting, entertaining documentary. “I'm delighted that I made the film I set out to make, and that I could tell a really, really complicated story, and convey as much information as possible and make it accessible to audiences. Because it is supposed to be a movie.” The irony is, as critical as he is about the failures of the news coverage, had they done a better job, his documentary probably wouldn't exist. “It's just common sense,” he says. “If the people who are supposed to be informing us were doing their job, there'd be no need for a guy from The Simpsons to tell the story.”