Filmmaker Spike Lee’s return to New Orleans to document the rebuilding progress five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city was released on DVD
The two-part, four-hour documentary If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise follows up Lee’s three-time Emmy Award-winning 2006 documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, about New Orleans during and right after Katrina.
In this new HBO documentary, Lee shows the successes and failures in the ongoing efforts to restore housing, healthcare, education, economic growth and law and order in New Orleans, as well as the hope and heartache that are still prevalent in the city.
Among the successes are a series of legal victories that promised accountability for the damage. But Lee also found a mistrust in many of the residents, who say that recovery efforts are geared toward transforming New Orleans into an “economic engine” that will benefit only an elite few. Plus, affordable housing is still a serious problem there, with only 38% of the destroyed private homes rebuilt and rents soaring.
Among the people who share their stories in If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise are actors Brad Pitt (Seven) and Sean Penn (Carlito’s Way), former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and former Louisiana governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
The documentary, which HBO aired in August 2010, was priced at $24.98 on DVD.
The two-DVD set includes three special features:
- audio commentary
- behind-the-scenes featurette
- and interviews.
Check out the movie’s trailer:
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Buy or Rent If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise
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