Trouble the Water

“New Orleans looks dead like a motherfucker”. Speaking in her easy New Orleans drawl, narrator Kim Roberts (along with her husband Scott) films the events leading up to Hurricane Katrina, as well as the impact it has on their lives in the wake of the destruction. The Roberts are a likeable pair, but the film seems more concerned with their feelings of atonement and starting afresh, rather than the lack of help given to the thousands of stricken citizens. Trouble the Water shows that the worst natural disasters can bring out the best in people, and this forms the backbone of the documentary. A couple of statistics are thrown in at the end - such as the fact that homelessness has since doubled, and that there has been a 61% drop in the number of African-Americans living in the city - but there is no point proven, and no new facts about the mishandling of the situation, to make this feature stand out.