comment #1

Webster says ...

Saw Trouble the Water. Enjoyed (if that is the operative word) Trouble the Water. But this documentary cries out to go direct to PBS or HBO, not the local arthouse. (This was one of those films that won more because of the nature of the subject matter than the execution itself--a good, but not great, documentary.)

comment #2

Mark says ...

With cameras now connected to every piece of techology available, it's amazing that 99% of the population has no idea how to use one.

When on vacation, I've had a stranger take my picture dozens of times, and never once has it been framed properly and/or even in focus. Plus they have to ask where the picture button is everytime. "Top right; the same place it's been since you were born. And you don't need to capture the area 10 feet below my knees..."

comment #3

corey3rd says ...

damn shame we didn't airlift tripods into New Orleans.

comment #4

kino says ...

It is so sad that the once great marketing genius of the American independent film business has come down to these lame excuses. They've lost all their creativity and desire to break through and capture audiences. Their marketing has become so boring even for their very best pictures.

comment #5

Mgmax says ...

Corey wins comment of the day.

comment #6

Gordie Lachance says ...

I remember the day before Katrina hit Fox News was doing a man-in-the-street interview and the reporter was going up to people asking them "There is a hurricane coming. There is a mandatory evacuation order in place. Why are you still here??"

One gentleman (I can't recall if he was black or white) responded "None of your fucking business." (since it was live, the F word went out on the air).

I would have loved a follow up report on whether or not that gentleman survived.

It's not racism or rich vs poor that will be our downfall. It's our loud-mouthed, belligerent arrogance.

comment #7

D.Z. says ...

"Not because it's "too black," but because the blackness in the film -- the look of it, the visual language, the cultural vibe and atmosphere -- is too low-rent."

Maybe it can be remade as a modern-day blaxploitation revenge flick. But anyway, how can a guy who liked Hustle and Flow be calling this "low-rent"? I'll probably take your shaky camera comments into consideration, though, because they've ruined far too many potentially good action movies in recent years.

comment #8

JaySmack says ...

Gordie, your insightful comments got me thinking. Why didn't those New Yorkers leave midtown Manhattan after the first Trade Center Bombing? We're talking about rich, affluent whites who knew their place of work was a target for terrorism as oppoed to poor urban blacks who didn't have the cars with which to leave town,(a small fact people like you keep conveniently forgetting) or the money with which to get hotel rooms --another small fact you seemed to have overlooked in your rush to demonize the victims.
Or would YOU have lent them the money and the use of your car, Gordie? Maybe on AM hate radio where such talking points are never challenged your rhetoric may sound good but in the real world it makes you sound foolish, or worse.

And while I generally agree with Jeff, on this story I'll take exception. Whether it's civil rights, sports or even slavery blacks (and non-whites in gereral) are always turned into side characters of their own stories, while the tangential whites are given center-stage and protrayed as the morally-conscientious "heroes." I think it's completely accurate that distributors placed their open bias ahead of whatever merit the documentary has. They didn't see whites being cast as the heroes or the main players in the drama and they automatically decided to pan it.
Hollywood produces TONS of movies like Amazing Grace and Amistad, but makes excuses for why a movie about Frederick Douglass or Thurgood Marshall simply wouldn't be "marketable." Or is this all simply one, big, happy coincidence?

Maybe the flimmaker should have had a plethora of white suburbanites being seen handing out food and water. Or maybe expresing their grief. Problem is whites didn't do ANY of those things during or after Katrina. Instead many (if not most) mocked thousands of suffering people the same way Gordie just did.
Wonder if anyone will ever do documentary on degenerate bigots? I doubt if dsitributors would oppose it on the grounds it was "too white."

comment #9

T. Holly says ...

Stu shilling for Eug. I'd go back into the editing room and rework the images. String together stills, do optical camera moves. slow down images and leave the better parts of the footage alone. Then get it on t.v. Luv Stu's Defamer hyperbole though.

comment #10

MDOC says ...

Interesting point Mr Wells. Firstly, if an executive insinuated that something is "too black" and asked where are the white people are than that is disgusting, case closed. But sometimes your product is not good enough, and it's not about your gender, race or nationality. You can blame those things but you may be better off spending energy on making a product good enough. Along those same lines, the Katrina rescue operation was not good enough. It's not unreasonable to point out that the magnitude of the damage and destruction to the infrastructure of New Orleans was unprecedented. It's Ok to be angry, but maybe it wasn't about gender, race, or nationality. It's usually the fault of the ruling classes when national disaters strike. We all learned in school that Mt Vesuvius was so destructive because "Pliny the Younger didn't care about Pompeians".