NEW ORLEANS STATE OF MIND

When the Levees Broke

When Spike Lee’s rousing documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts faced criticism for its political angles—before anyone saw the final product—Lee did the right thing. Sticking to his guns, he insisted that the anger stemming from a massive chorus of interviewees who had suffered the wrath of Hurricane Katrina was justified by the negligent American government. At the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, he boldly announced that the president was “the worst in the history of the United States,” and reasonably so: Lee’s four-hour-long finished product, which aired on HBO and will receive broader recognition now on DVD, provides a missive to the masses whose only encounter with the tragedy was Kanye West’s declaration that George Bush doesn’t like black people.

Read the rest of the review in the New York Press...