When the Levee Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Click this HBO link for more information.
Even when Lee's subjects are calm and composed, their words cut to the bone. Along with visuals that capture all aspects of the disaster, these bitter, wounded, poignant, thoughtful, expert and often foul-mouthed voices are knitted together in a tightly edited film that manages to sustain four hours without a central narrator. (Washington Post)
Although seeds of hope are woven into this tapestry of rage, sorrow and disbelief, the inability of government at almost every level to act quickly and decisively leaves you aghast at what amounts to a collective failure of will. Some of the stories that hurt the most describe indignities suffered by ordinary New Orleanians leaving the city, like those who were turned back by armed police officers as they tried to cross a bridge into the town of Gretna. (NYTimes)
In this way, "When the Levees Broke" isn't so much investigative as impressionistic, the kind of storytelling you still get on a radio show like Ira Glass' "This American Life." But it's the accumulation of anecdote, not the rhetoric, that makes this such a valuable document. "When the Levees Broke" is like the New Orleans jazz funeral — a dirge on the way to the cemetery, an up-tempo parade in the deceased's honor on the bittersweet walk back home. (LA Times)
I'm not sure if HBO Asia will air it here but I hope they do. I've seen 9/11 docus before (haven't seen Oliver Stone's film, WTC or the film flight 93,though). I'm sure Hurricane Katrina, will resonate with emotional thug just as 9/11 documentaries.
Btw, I hope HBO Asia plan to show the Kevin Carter documentary also.
Source for many reviews from Metacritic
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