Essay on When the Levees Broke(2006)
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Instructor: Dr. Joseph McBride, Cine 373
Student: Alvan Jiing
Due: 10/15/07
The Debut of America’s Tragedy
Imagine going to a multi-million dollar movie set. Perhaps in a Steven Spielberg’s film. Thousands of houses are broken down to a point as if a tyrannosaur as rex from Jurassic Park came, and violently trampled, ripped, and destroyed the houses in order to pursue its prey. The cars on the street suffered the same fate; flipped upside down and strewn all over the asphalt. Trees that once stood 20 feet high, now lay on the ground, shattered and defeated. The worst part is the nauseating odor of swollen-rotten corpses lying on the ground scattered on the road. There is not a living creature in sight, just like Sodom and Gomorrah had been after suffered from destruction by brimstone and fire from Heaven. It is devastating. No one would ever want to go to such a place. It all seems surreal. What if this is not a movie set, but a real place to visit? In his documentary film “When the Levees Broke; A Requiem In Four Acts” (2006), Spike Lee vividly captures the devastation of New Orleans, starting when Hurricane Katrina first hit on August 29, 2005, and through the rebuilding of the community. From politics to science, from culture to personalities, Lee gives a comprehensive view of the event from all aspects: politic, historical, social, and more. The ambitious and passionately enraged director debuted America’s worst tragedy through the art of filmmaking to awaken sleepy Americans to reality.
Interviews are the soul of documentary films. As a director, Lee succeeded at
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finding a variety of people as interviewees to fully represent New Orleans as a whole. Lee gathered people from a diverse background as interviewees ranging from politicians to musicians, from to activist to poet and author, and to local residents. People such as the Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin, musician Donald Harrison, activist Fred Johnson,poet Shelton Shakespear Alexander, author Doug Brinkley, and residents of Upton to Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and many others all participated in various interviews. Each of these individuals experience the hurricane and could thus provide a unique perspective that contributed to a more comprehensive view of the disaster. Additionally, Lee’s team is so experienced at interviewing people that Lee admits to the fact that he doesn’t have to be on set to interview people, but let it carry out by his crew. Also characteristic to the interviews is the freedom and spontaneity that Lee and his crew allowed their interviewees. Lee and his crew encouraged their interviewees to freely express themselves so that if they feel like cussing, they may cuss, as long as they speak from the heart, and not put a restraint on anything (Spike Lee) .
In Act I, the film discusses the possibility for the explosion of the levees, which really happened during Hurricane Betsy in 1965. The film first gives a report of the event from the neighbors, who recall hearing the explosion when the levees brok. Audrey Mason, a resident of Gentilly angrily complains about the event, “I didn’t just hear the explosion, I felt the explosion. ” Then it goes into the history of Hurricane Betsy. The former mayor furiously talks about the politics and the reason why the explosion was never investigated by the government. Then Doug Brinkley talks about the history of the event. The director then switches gear from the history of New Orleans to the mechanics
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of the breaking of the levee, having the leading professors from LSU Hurricane Center explain the breaking of the levees from a scientific point of view. Lee provides a better understanding of the breaking of the levees by introducing multiple interviewers, each with their distinct perspective.
Besides interviews footages, Lee also incorporates a myriad of research in his production, which becomes an integral part of the film, to the credit of his researcher. In Act II, the film shows a black and white footage of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. In this scene, the camera’s shooting in a wide angle, tilted downward to see people carrying their belongings as they walk through dirty water. Another scene shows a medium shot of an African American lady carrying her bags with both of her hands as she walks past by the camera with a big and beautiful smile on her face. The effective usage of the old footage when the film refers back to the history of Betsy comparing to Katrina shows a correlation between the two disasters. Another remarkable footage is the videotaping of a man in the downtown area when the storm hit. The camera starts off with a wide shot, and then slowly zooms in to this frantical man wearing a rain coat with water up to his knee, walking towards the camera while the wind and rain violently beat the man and the camera. It was a deep focus shot. One can see clearly from the background to the foreground: broken glasses from the building in the back, waters begin to form like a river flowing from right to left, and trees almost blown away by the wind. The man walks up to the cameraman and shouts, saying that the water has covered up his house higher than second floor. Others shoot these footages, but Lee uses these to support his interviews. Together they become strong evidence to convince viewers.
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Unlike most Cinéma Vérité documentarists, Lee does not keep editing to an absolute minimum. Lee likes to find meaning in the pile of footages and create a story, or perhaps a poem. Similar to the film “Night and Fog”(1955), Alain Resnais writes the history of the horrifying Nazi concentration camp into a death poem . “Even in the world of documentary films, editing styles can range from ultra-realistic to ultra formalistic. ” Like Resnais, Lee’s editing style is more formal, creative, cunning, and entertaining, unlike the traditional documentary approach of using the voice of God as narritor with boring long takes. For example, the montage at the very end of Act II, Lee shows the most horrifying pictures out of the disaster: dead bodies one after another, lying on the ground, swollen and rotten. The camera cuts from a full shot of the dead body to a close up of the shoe of the victim lying half submerged under the water. Another wide shot of a dead body, lying on the rooftop of a car with the sun beating its heat on the corpse. Then it cuts to a photograph of a half shot of a dead man lying naked with decayed skin and fingers. It has such high resolution that you can see every detail of the decomposition. Another terrifying photograph is a dead corpse being eaten by two dogs. The movement of this montage flows with a bitter-cold and disheartened dirge, played by a violin. The rhythm of editing matches the rhythm of the dirge. The whole montage seems like a poem, it is as though going to a funeral of America and mourning for the dead. At the end of the montage, it cuts to Shelton Shakespear Alexander’s rapping in the cemetery as the dirge goes on in the background. Then the scene dissolves to the devastated Ninth Ward Street. The camera moves through piles of lumbers and devastated houses as it pans to the right side of the road and to the left. The sequence ends with a long shot of the city, tilting downwardly to see the destruction of the houses by using a crane or a lifter. Act II
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ends with a beautiful montage, which depicts the very tragedy of the disaster. One cannot imagine that this happened on the American soil, the most powerful nation of the day; it looks more like something that one can imagine of some poor African country.
“The body of cinema is numbed by the terrible poison habit. We demand an opportunity to experiment with this dying organism, to find an antidote. ” As early as 1920’s, Dziga Vertov saw that the purpose of his films should be to document social reality. Vertov was facing revolutionary war in Russia, where thousands were killed. The country was facing unprecedented famine and epidemics. Vertov believes, through the use of camera, we can capture the essence and reality of a society, which our natural eyes cannot do. In “Man with a Movie Camera”(1929), Vertov further discusses the ability that a camera can do, like a watching eye capturing the lives of human beings.
In Spike Lee’s film “When the Levees Broke”(2005), he too captured something that people cannot see on everyday news. Lee brought the society to see the truth, behind the scene as Vertov refers to as the “film-truth.” Lee truly captures the essence of the tragedy of America, when the government responds to the need of his people with such a sluggish and half-hearted effort. How can a government that claims to advocate for democracy in other countries be so irresponsive to the dire needs of its people? Perhaps our government just has different priorities – priorities where black people are not on top of the list. Through the film, Lee criticizes the politicians who seem to be more concerned about their own business or political career than the people who are dying and suffering. In films like “Do the Right Thing”(1989), “She’s Gotta Have It”(1986), “Malcolm X”(1992), Lee has carried out a consistent theme in many of his films, which explore a common issue of racial injustice in America. Fearlessly trying to awaken
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Americans to see the real America, Lee desperately uses film as a tool to address racial, political, social issues, and more. Spike Lee concludes this the great American tragedy with the following quote of his: “Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed, in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith. ”
Instructor: Dr. Joseph McBride, Cine 373
Student: Alvan Jiing
Due: 10/15/07
The Debut of America’s Tragedy
Imagine going to a multi-million dollar movie set. Perhaps in a Steven Spielberg’s film. Thousands of houses are broken down to a point as if a tyrannosaur as rex from Jurassic Park came, and violently trampled, ripped, and destroyed the houses in order to pursue its prey. The cars on the street suffered the same fate; flipped upside down and strewn all over the asphalt. Trees that once stood 20 feet high, now lay on the ground, shattered and defeated. The worst part is the nauseating odor of swollen-rotten corpses lying on the ground scattered on the road. There is not a living creature in sight, just like Sodom and Gomorrah had been after suffered from destruction by brimstone and fire from Heaven. It is devastating. No one would ever want to go to such a place. It all seems surreal. What if this is not a movie set, but a real place to visit? In his documentary film “When the Levees Broke; A Requiem In Four Acts” (2006), Spike Lee vividly captures the devastation of New Orleans, starting when Hurricane Katrina first hit on August 29, 2005, and through the rebuilding of the community. From politics to science, from culture to personalities, Lee gives a comprehensive view of the event from all aspects: politic, historical, social, and more. The ambitious and passionately enraged director debuted America’s worst tragedy through the art of filmmaking to awaken sleepy Americans to reality.
Interviews are the soul of documentary films. As a director, Lee succeeded at
Alvan 2
finding a variety of people as interviewees to fully represent New Orleans as a whole. Lee gathered people from a diverse background as interviewees ranging from politicians to musicians, from to activist to poet and author, and to local residents. People such as the Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin, musician Donald Harrison, activist Fred Johnson,poet Shelton Shakespear Alexander, author Doug Brinkley, and residents of Upton to Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and many others all participated in various interviews. Each of these individuals experience the hurricane and could thus provide a unique perspective that contributed to a more comprehensive view of the disaster. Additionally, Lee’s team is so experienced at interviewing people that Lee admits to the fact that he doesn’t have to be on set to interview people, but let it carry out by his crew. Also characteristic to the interviews is the freedom and spontaneity that Lee and his crew allowed their interviewees. Lee and his crew encouraged their interviewees to freely express themselves so that if they feel like cussing, they may cuss, as long as they speak from the heart, and not put a restraint on anything (Spike Lee) .
In Act I, the film discusses the possibility for the explosion of the levees, which really happened during Hurricane Betsy in 1965. The film first gives a report of the event from the neighbors, who recall hearing the explosion when the levees brok. Audrey Mason, a resident of Gentilly angrily complains about the event, “I didn’t just hear the explosion, I felt the explosion. ” Then it goes into the history of Hurricane Betsy. The former mayor furiously talks about the politics and the reason why the explosion was never investigated by the government. Then Doug Brinkley talks about the history of the event. The director then switches gear from the history of New Orleans to the mechanics
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of the breaking of the levee, having the leading professors from LSU Hurricane Center explain the breaking of the levees from a scientific point of view. Lee provides a better understanding of the breaking of the levees by introducing multiple interviewers, each with their distinct perspective.
Besides interviews footages, Lee also incorporates a myriad of research in his production, which becomes an integral part of the film, to the credit of his researcher. In Act II, the film shows a black and white footage of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. In this scene, the camera’s shooting in a wide angle, tilted downward to see people carrying their belongings as they walk through dirty water. Another scene shows a medium shot of an African American lady carrying her bags with both of her hands as she walks past by the camera with a big and beautiful smile on her face. The effective usage of the old footage when the film refers back to the history of Betsy comparing to Katrina shows a correlation between the two disasters. Another remarkable footage is the videotaping of a man in the downtown area when the storm hit. The camera starts off with a wide shot, and then slowly zooms in to this frantical man wearing a rain coat with water up to his knee, walking towards the camera while the wind and rain violently beat the man and the camera. It was a deep focus shot. One can see clearly from the background to the foreground: broken glasses from the building in the back, waters begin to form like a river flowing from right to left, and trees almost blown away by the wind. The man walks up to the cameraman and shouts, saying that the water has covered up his house higher than second floor. Others shoot these footages, but Lee uses these to support his interviews. Together they become strong evidence to convince viewers.
Alvan 4
Unlike most Cinéma Vérité documentarists, Lee does not keep editing to an absolute minimum. Lee likes to find meaning in the pile of footages and create a story, or perhaps a poem. Similar to the film “Night and Fog”(1955), Alain Resnais writes the history of the horrifying Nazi concentration camp into a death poem . “Even in the world of documentary films, editing styles can range from ultra-realistic to ultra formalistic. ” Like Resnais, Lee’s editing style is more formal, creative, cunning, and entertaining, unlike the traditional documentary approach of using the voice of God as narritor with boring long takes. For example, the montage at the very end of Act II, Lee shows the most horrifying pictures out of the disaster: dead bodies one after another, lying on the ground, swollen and rotten. The camera cuts from a full shot of the dead body to a close up of the shoe of the victim lying half submerged under the water. Another wide shot of a dead body, lying on the rooftop of a car with the sun beating its heat on the corpse. Then it cuts to a photograph of a half shot of a dead man lying naked with decayed skin and fingers. It has such high resolution that you can see every detail of the decomposition. Another terrifying photograph is a dead corpse being eaten by two dogs. The movement of this montage flows with a bitter-cold and disheartened dirge, played by a violin. The rhythm of editing matches the rhythm of the dirge. The whole montage seems like a poem, it is as though going to a funeral of America and mourning for the dead. At the end of the montage, it cuts to Shelton Shakespear Alexander’s rapping in the cemetery as the dirge goes on in the background. Then the scene dissolves to the devastated Ninth Ward Street. The camera moves through piles of lumbers and devastated houses as it pans to the right side of the road and to the left. The sequence ends with a long shot of the city, tilting downwardly to see the destruction of the houses by using a crane or a lifter. Act II
Alvan 5
ends with a beautiful montage, which depicts the very tragedy of the disaster. One cannot imagine that this happened on the American soil, the most powerful nation of the day; it looks more like something that one can imagine of some poor African country.
“The body of cinema is numbed by the terrible poison habit. We demand an opportunity to experiment with this dying organism, to find an antidote. ” As early as 1920’s, Dziga Vertov saw that the purpose of his films should be to document social reality. Vertov was facing revolutionary war in Russia, where thousands were killed. The country was facing unprecedented famine and epidemics. Vertov believes, through the use of camera, we can capture the essence and reality of a society, which our natural eyes cannot do. In “Man with a Movie Camera”(1929), Vertov further discusses the ability that a camera can do, like a watching eye capturing the lives of human beings.
In Spike Lee’s film “When the Levees Broke”(2005), he too captured something that people cannot see on everyday news. Lee brought the society to see the truth, behind the scene as Vertov refers to as the “film-truth.” Lee truly captures the essence of the tragedy of America, when the government responds to the need of his people with such a sluggish and half-hearted effort. How can a government that claims to advocate for democracy in other countries be so irresponsive to the dire needs of its people? Perhaps our government just has different priorities – priorities where black people are not on top of the list. Through the film, Lee criticizes the politicians who seem to be more concerned about their own business or political career than the people who are dying and suffering. In films like “Do the Right Thing”(1989), “She’s Gotta Have It”(1986), “Malcolm X”(1992), Lee has carried out a consistent theme in many of his films, which explore a common issue of racial injustice in America. Fearlessly trying to awaken
Alvan 6
Americans to see the real America, Lee desperately uses film as a tool to address racial, political, social issues, and more. Spike Lee concludes this the great American tragedy with the following quote of his: “Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed, in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith. ”
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