I'm curious as to how this film was made. How did this couple happen to spend their days before and during Katrina filming with a video recorder? They seem like unlikely film-makers. And how did their footage reach the professionals who made it into the documentary? It seems to me that is a story in itself.
And a more mundane question: how did they keep the camcorder charged during the many days without power in New Orleans?
It was made because people who could afford a video camera but somehow couldn't afford to leave stuck around and filmed what they saw.
shareRead some of the reviews, especially Roger Ebert, Peter Travers, & NY Times, for some of the back story. The filmmakers started out to do a documentary on the National Guard and happened to meet Kimberley, who offered the footage she had taken so far. Don't know about the camcorder staying charged, but it reminds me of at least one Biblical miracle. . . .
sharei'm currently working with kim and scott on a daily basis as a videographer and editor. she gave me the full rundown.
basically, kim and scott didn;t have a car to leave the city. based on what was being said on the news, kim bought a crappy hi-8 camcorder from a dude off the street to record what happened in the city. she did it so maybe she could sell the footage to news stations to make a quick buck. the battery didn't last the days following the storm. it actually died shortly after they left house for the two-story one across the street.
they acquired a moving truck and headed to alexandria, la where they were looking for news reporters to sell the footage to. scott saw a film crew and, thinking they were from a station, approached them with the footage. they went back to the house where they were staying where they watched it, and they told them they were actually filming a documentary.
from my understanding, despite what tia and carl have said, they were there not to film the national guard, but to try to find katrina stories. i've actually seen the footage where scott and kim first approached them and this confirms it.
it's actually been a cool experience to digitize and capture all of this footage that didn't make it into the film, and there is LOTS.