2008 Woodie Awards
Two DVDs underscore divisions between races with daring views
Documentary shows horrors of Katrina, 'Poor Boy's Game' focuses on racial tensions
Bruce Dacis
MCT Campus
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: The Mix
|
"Desert Bayou" is a post-Hurricane Katrina documentary directed by Alex LeMay and produced by Percy Miller about what happened to 600 blacks made homeless by the flood who were air-lifted out of New Orleans and flown to Utah.
Utah, a state where blacks comprised less than 1 percent of the population - and that even includes the members of the Utah Jazz, a team that years ago migrated to Salt Lake City from New Orleans.
If the evacuees were not already shell-shocked by Katrina and the horrible conditions they endured at the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center, many were in disbelief over being sent to Utah.
Once they landed, they were greeted with one indignity after another. Upon leaving their airplane, all adults were searched for contraband. Then, instead of being sent to downtown Salt Lake City hotels, they were all transported to Camp Williams, a Utah National Guard base an hour from the city, where a curfew was imposed upon them by the camp's commanding officer.
But slowly, with the help of state and local aid workers, the evacuees were able to integrate into Utah society as families were helped in finding homes, jobs and schools for their children.
The story is told through interviews with many of the evacuees, with special emphasis given to the lives of two men and their families, plus ordinary Utah residents, local caregivers and social workers, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, National Guard Col. Scot Olson, radio talk show host Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and others.
Yet "Desert Bayou," while obviously sympathetic to the evacuees, also casts an honest gaze on some of their own difficult, if not insoluble, problems. One of the men focused upon has a prior felony conviction, for a burglary committed 25 years earlier, that prevents him from getting many of the jobs he seeks. Another is still battling the alcoholism and drug addiction that had previously pulled his family apart.
The documentary's main problem is structural - it bounces around too much and at times loses focus. Also, some of the "talking heads" who represent ordinary white citizens of Utah were obviously included for their uneducated viewpoints and thus come across as straw men and women.
Be the first to comment on this story