World Premiere: Screening in the U.S. Documentary Film Competition
An aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, armed with a video camera, show what survival is all about when they are trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, and seize a chance for a new beginning.
Trouble the Water tells the story of an aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning. It's a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes that takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. When you first meet them, Kimberly and Scott are swaggering with raw charm, trying to peddle their home video of the hurricane. "I've been saving it because I don't want to give it to nobody local," Kim boasts. "This needs to be worldwide." What emerges, through honest and intimate storytelling, is an exhilarating tale of talented and deeply sympathetic people who are surviving not only deadly floodwaters, armed soldiers, and bungling bureaucrats, but also their own past. The film opens the day before Katrina makes landfall, just blocks away from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that tourists know. The Ninth Ward. Kim is turning her video camera on herself and her neighbors trapped in the city. "It's going to be a day to remember," Kim says excitedly into her new camera as the storm is brewing. It's her first time shooting video and it's rough, jumpy but as dense with reality as an execution. Kim's playful home-grown newscast tone grinds against the audience's knowledge that hell is just hours away. There is no way for the audience to warn her. And for New Orleans` poor, there is no where to run. As the hurricane begins to rage and the floodwaters fill their world and our screen, Kim and Scott continue to film, documenting their harrowing voyage to higher ground and rescues of friends and neighbors. The film holds back several surprises such as raw talent of Kim, AKA Black Kold Madina. When Kim finds the only existing copy of her recorded music with a relative in Memphis, her performance in that moment reveals not only devastating skills as a rap artist, but compacts her life story into explosive poetry. With Trouble the Water, the directors have seamlessly woven together two different worlds and world views. They have intertwined Kim and Scott`s powerful raw footage with their own mix of fly on the wall and in your face filmmaking. The result is a powerful and moving reminder that heroism can come from the most unpredictable of places. And that strength of character can triumph over the worst adversity. Trouble the Water features an original musical score by Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, and the music of Dr. John, Mary Mary, Citizen Cope, John Lee Hooker, and the Free Agents Brass Band.
Clip Description
An aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, armed with a video camera, show what survival is all about when they are trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, and then seize a chance for a new beginning.
