Essential, startling and distressing insight into what it was like to be in the eye of the Katrina storm if you were a poor, black resident of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans on Monday August 29 2005.
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12/05/08
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Trouble the Water (2008)
97 %
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Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 58
Rotten:2
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Consensus: This incredible documentary displays the tragedy and mismanagement of Katrina along with the heroism of strangers and survivors.
Theatrical Release: Aug 22, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $146,384
Synopsis: How is it that Hurricane Katrina managed to revolutionize American attitudes about the environment, but somehow the very people most devastated by the storm have become refugees in their own country, and their experiences have been all... [More]
Director: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
Reviews for Trouble the Water
Trouble The Water tells a fascinating story with some amazing imagery, shot when the floods were at their height, but somehow loses something in the translation.
12/05/08
The footage – edited and augmented by Michael Moore’s collaborators Tia Lessin and Carl Deal – is unpolished, but the stories and commentary are as inspirational as they are harrowing.
12/05/08
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's movie about Hurricane Katrina is, in its way, quite as powerful as Spike Lee's massive documentary on the subject.
12/05/08
I could call the film an important document, but it's far more rowdy and vital, and amazingly unpretentious, than that makes it sound.
12/05/08
Trouble the Water employs Kim Roberts’ startling camcorder footage to reveal how little New Orleans prepared its citizens for the coming disaster.
12/05/08
Later, unfortunately, the film’s energy drains like the waters, leaving a wrack of tired folk wisdoms and ear-injuring rap songs.
12/05/08
Riveting, emotionally engaging and frequently astonishing documentary that tells an important story and will make you laugh, cry and seethe with rage.
12/05/08
The film is a lasting document on the subjects of Hurricane Katrina, tragedy and bureaucratic incompetence.
11/14/08
For the 3rd anniversary of Katrina comes a gripping point of view about the disaster and its continuing impact on the people of New Orleans that has not been seen before.
11/01/08
You can't help wanting -- and maybe needing -- to read into her indomitable spiritedness something like a reason for hope. For her, for other Katrina survivors, for all of us.
10/31/08
Top Critic Trouble the Water doesn't merely bring its characters to the edge of the abyss. It watches them fall in -- and then, amazingly, climb out.
10/31/08
Trouble the Water is probably the best of the films made on the subject. That's because the film concentrates on a few specific stories rather than trying to provide a comprehensive examination of its subject matter.
10/23/08
It's not quite a Grapes of Wrath for our times, but Trouble the Water does give a voice to people America didn't see or listen to before Katrina.
10/22/08
Some documentaries change how you see the world. Some change how you see yourself. Trouble the Water... astonishingly, does both...
10/22/08
More than most documentaries, this mosaiclike movie is made up of many pieces, and it's considerably more than the sum of those parts.
10/17/08
Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal make jarring cuts from Roberts' personal footage to the mainstream news reports, emphasizing the unreal tone of the professional media.
10/17/08
The film works as well as it does thanks to Kimberly Roberts' magnetic screen presence.
10/17/08
Latest News for Trouble the Water
December 03, 2008:
Gothams Dive Into Frozen River 
"Frozen River" was the big winner at Tuesday's 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, taking home two of the six prizes, including best feature. More...
November 19, 2008:
A Closer Look at Oscar's Documentary Contenders
With awards season just around the corner, it's time to start handicapping the various Oscar races -- and the Los Angeles Times has kicked things off with a look at the 15... More...
August 28, 2008:
Raw, unfiltered and expletive-laced, but a brutally-honest flick guaranteed to give you an unsanitized picture of what life was like for the least fortunate folks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
More...
August 21, 2008:
Shocking Hurricane Katrina documentary created from real-time home movies shot by storm victim.
More...
Related Forums for Trouble the Water
(2008/Docu)-Tia Lessin's Sundance winner TROUBLE THE WATER opens on August 22nd!!!
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(2008/Docu)-Tia Lessin's Sundance winner TROUBLE THE WATER opens on August 22nd!!!
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