I was kicking myself for missing the acclaimed Hurricane Katrina documentary, “Trouble the Water,” during its recent run at the Spectrum in Albany, but over Thanksgiving I was actually glad I had missed it. Turns out, it was playing in Portland, Maine, not far from my parents’ house, and the directors, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, were doing a Q&A after the screening. That sounded like great fun, and so on Friday I headed out to The Movies on Exchange, an independent, storefront theater tucked away on one of the city’s side streets.

“Trouble the Water” documents the experiences of a young New Orleans couple, Kimberly Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts, who find themselves trapped in their home in the Lower Ninth Ward — one of the areas hardest struck by the storm — as the waters rise after the levees break. Like many, they did not have the means to evacuate — no car, and no money for transportation. The movie follows them as they make their way to the Louisiana Superdome, which housed approximately 30,000 residents during and after the storm, and then to a cousin’s house in Memphis, where they attempt to rebuild their lives from scratch. Eventually, (SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THESE PEOPLE!) they return to their home in New Orleans, where Scott gets a job doing construction. What he likes about it, he says, is that he gets to rebuild his neighborhood.

The film includes TV footage of the storm, and TV interviews with officials, such as Michael Brown, the former FEMA head who resigned in disgrace for the federal government’s inept response to Hurricane Katrina. But what really distinguishes the movie is the inclusion of film shot by Kimberly Roberts herself. Two weeks before the storm, she bought an old video camera off the street for $20, and used it to film interviews with neighbors, footage of the waters rising around their home and her and her husband’s effort to simply survive. At some point, they find an old boat, and use it to carry themselves and neighbors to safety, paddling down streets that have been turned into churning rivers. The footage shot by Kimberly Rivers Roberts is grainy, shaky and confusing, but it’s also remarkable, an eye-witness account of life inside the hurricane. Rivers Roberts, a former drug dealer, comes across as savvy and sharp, and also compassionate and generous. I liked her, and so it came as a bit of a shock when the filmmakers said that this was the first time in Roberts’ life that anyone had viewed her in positive terms.

There are other remarkable scenes during the film. One is the footage of Kimberly Rivers Roberts rapping at her cousin’s house, where she finds a tape of music she has written — music she thought was lost in the storm — puts it on, and then raps along, in an animated and emotional performance. Up until then, I’m not sure I was even aware that Rivers Roberts is a rapper, although she makes references to her stage name, Black Kold Madina. In any case, Rivers Roberts is a rapper, and also a very good one: her performance of this song, called “Amazing,” is a highlight of the film. Her music is online (click here) and if it’s anything like the song in the film, it’s probably pretty good. But I haven’t listened to it yet, so I don’t know for sure.

It’s always interesting to hear what directors have to say about their movies, and Lessin and Deal provided some interesting insights. They basically flew down to New Orleans shortly after the storm thinking they would make a film about military men and women returning home from Iraq, only to find that their homes have been destroyed by Katrina. But then they met Kim and Scott at a shelter, and decided to follow them around, instead. One member of the audience expressed some amazement that Deal and Lessin were able to find hurricane survivors who just happened to have eyewitness footage of Hurricane Katrina in their possession, but this made perfect sense to me, because as a journalist I’ve always believed in something called Journalist’s Luck. According to the law of Journalist’s Luck, which I just made up two seconds ago, you find the people you need for your stories when you need them. Because this happens to me all the time, I wasn’t really all that surprised that Deal and Lessin found Kim and Scott.

“Trouble the Water” made the Academy Awards shortlist for documentary feature, which means it’s one of 15 films being considered for an Oscar nomination in that category. (Typically, five films are nominated.) Right now, I’m thinking that “Trouble the Water” will not only be nominated, but that it will also win, because the Academy likes to reward timely documentaries about the big, compelling issues that actors and directors care about, and actors and directors really, really care about New Orleans. Sean Penn has spent time there, Brad Pitt is leading an effort to build 150 homes in the lower Ninth Ward, and Spike Lee made the well-regarded, four-hour documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” which I have not seen. So you heard it hear first: “Trouble the Water” will win best documentary.

FILM RECOMMENDATION
In some ways, “Trouble the Water” reminded me of “Gunner Palace,” a 2005 documentary where the filmmakers, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein, lived with the 2-3 Field Artillery Division (the “Gunners”) of the Army’s First Armored Division in a ruined palace once occupied by Saddam Hussein’s son Uday. Like “Trouble the Water,” “Gunner Palace” has a fly-on-the-wall, improvisational feel, but it also contains exciting music composed by the subjects of the film: in this case, raps about war and life in general written and performed by the soldiers.

Got a comment? A favorite documentary? Comment below or e-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.