When the Levees Broke

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is a documentary film directed by Spike Lee in conjunction with HBO that focuses on the decimated aftermath of New Orleans, Louisiana after it was brutalized by Hurricane Katrina. A port city well below sea level, New Orleans relied upon levees, slopes and ditches made to hold back water, in order to keep out any of the excess fluid but when Hurricane Katrina hit, fifty different levees broke, leaving almost 80 percent of the city submerged. Spike Lee takes a pensive and heart wrenching look at how the citizens dealt with the devastation of death and disease as their lives were simply washed away in the overflow, a loss that is a definite struggle for the very spirited New Orleans. The film consists of newsreels, photos of Katrina and its trail, and interviews with not only politicians, journalists, and engineers but the people from all over New Orleans who experienced firsthand when the levees broke. MORE