Salon: "N.O. Better Blues" (Spike Lee's Katrina Documentary)

[Hissyspit]

http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2006/08/20/levees/index_np.html?source=newsletter

N.O. Better Blues

Watching Spike Lee's four-hour epic on Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans Arena with my neighbors, I felt awed, exhausted and heartbroken -- and more convinced than ever that somebody should go to jail for what happened here.

By Cynthia Joyce

People had been talking for weeks about how the New Orleans premiere of Spike Lee's much anticipated Hurricane Katrina documentary, "When the Levees Broke," was sold out, so it was a little eerie when we arrived at New Orleans Arena Wednesday night to find that fewer than half of the 14,000 who'd reportedly snatched up the free tickets actually showed up for the event. Maybe they'd heard there would be no alcohol sold in the arena. Certainly Lee's ambitious film -- sweeping in its scope, emotionally intense and a challenge to watch in one sitting -- could drive just about anyone to drink. It's also possible that all those people who didn't show up don't live here anymore. The new New Orleans can be a pretty lonely town sometimes.

Which is partly why watching a Katrina documentary with thousands of other local residents -- certain to be a gut-wrenching experience -- also carried with it the possibility of catharsis.

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[goclark]

1. Have it set on my Tivo nt

[Cha]

2. Thank you, Spike Lee!

I never saw anything about it on tv so when I see "When The Levees Broke" it will be my first visual of Katrina. I'll have to buck up.

[Hissyspit]

3. kick