Trouble the Water

About the Project

Trouble the Water takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. It's a redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes - two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.

The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall-twenty-four year old aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts is turning her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. "It's going to be a day to remember," Kim declares. With no means to leave the city and equipped with just a few supplies and her hi 8 camera, she and her husband Scott tape their harrowing ordeal as the storm rages, the nearby levee breaches, and floodwaters fill their home and their community.

Seamlessly weaving 15 minutes of this home movie footage shot the day before and the day after the storm, with archival news segments and verite footage shot over two years, directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal document a journey of remarkable people surviving not only failed levees, bungling bureaucrats and armed soldiers, but also their own past.

The audience engagement campaign harnessed the power of Trouble the Water, engaging people across the country in dialogue and inspiring them to act. At the core of this are organizational partnerships, online resources, community and policy leader screenings, and speaking tours and forums featuring the filmmakers as well as Executive Producer Danny Glover and the stars of the film - Kimberly and Scott Roberts.

The Trouble the Water campaign created partnerships with faith-based, advocacy and service-based groups working on racial and economic justice, sustainable and equitable development and youth empowerment. Strategic screenings of Trouble the Water in coordination with the theatrical, DVD and television releases of the film will provided these groups with opportunities to engage their communities not only about the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, but about the underlying issues that remained when the floodwaters receded - failing public schools, record high levels of incarceration, extreme poverty, lack of government accountability and structural racism.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to support this powerful film. The Directors and subjects have done an excellent job at making this unique story relevant to so many of us. We believe that, with strategic and targeted audience engagement, this film inspired conversation and personal reflection about so many of the persistent issues that face our country today.