When the Levees Broke – A Requiem in Four Acts

Film. By Spike Lee. 2006. 256 minutes.
Spike Lee’s masterful 4-part, 4-hour documentary on Hurricane Katrina.

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film directed by Spike Lee about the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana due to the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina. It was filmed in late August and early September 2005, and premiered at the New Orleans Arena on August 16, 2006 and was first aired on HBO the following week. The television premiere aired in two parts on August 21 and 22, 2006 on HBO.  The title is a reference to the blues tune “When the Levee Breaks”, by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

The documentary consists largely of news footage and still photos of Katrina and its aftermath interspersed with interviews. Interviewees throughout the film include politicians, journalists, historians, engineers, and many people from various parts of New Orleans and the surrounding areas who give first hand accounts of their experiences with the levee failures and the aftermath. The first installment opens with a photo and film montage of historic and recent New Orleans scenes with a soundtrack of Louis Armstrong performing Louis Alter’s “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.” At the end of the last episode is a similar montage with Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans” on the soundtrack.

The film’s original score is by Terence Blanchard, a New Orleans-born trumpeter who also appears in the film with his mother and aunt as they return to their flooded home.

In the style of Michael Apted’s Up series (a documentary series that interviews Apted’s subjects every seven years) Lee has planned to interview the interviewees in Levees at least once more. In August 2010, HBO aired Lee’s documentary series If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, which chronicles how New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area have fared in the five years following Hurricane Katrina. [From Wikipedia.]

Released by HBO Home Video.