VIDEO: Hurricane Katrina Didn’t Kill New Orleans—But It Almost Did

VIDEO: Hurricane Katrina Didn’t Kill New Orleans—But It Almost Did

VIDEO: Hurricane Katrina Didn’t Kill New Orleans—But It Almost Did

A new documentary shows how the city has changed in the decade since the storm—and also how it hasn’t.

Laura Flanders and Jordan Flaherty
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At least seventy-one billion dollars in federal money has been spent on rebuilding New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit the city ten years ago. But has every opportunity been seized to bring back not just the place, but its people, so that both are stronger and healthier than before? How have federal, state and city policies affected the people of New Orleans?

From housing to economic development, activism to policing, Katrina irrevocably altered the face of NOLA. A new documentary from The Laura Flanders Show and teleSUR English explores the many ways in which the city has changed—and also how it hasn’t.

The film is produced and directed by Jordan Flaherty and executive produced by Laura Flanders and teleSUR English. Story producer is Marin Sander Holzman; camera by Joshua J. Bagnall, Melisa Cardona, Jonathan Klett, Abdul Aziz, and CrossPond Productions. Edited by Anna Barsan, Rebecca Scheckman and Jonathan Klett. Score by Drop Electric, with additional music by TBC Brass Band. Translation by Cynthia Garza.

Featuring interviews with Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, the commander of military relief operations during Katrina; former New Orleans city council president Oliver Thomas; current city council president Jason Williams; developer Sean Cummings; activists and former public housing residents Alfred Marshall and Toya Lewis; Brice White of the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative; spoken word artist Asia Rainey; youth activist Milan Nicole Sherry; and Rosana Cruz of Race Forward.

Also featuring Roy Brumfield, Leticia Casildo, Jolene Elberth, Fernando Lopez, Darnell Parker, Glenn Ross, Randy Silliman, BreakOUT!, Congreso de Jornaleros, Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, Oya Market, Ping Chong + Company, and STAND With Dignity.

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Laura Flanders Laura Flanders is the author of several books, the host of the nationally syndicated public television show (and podcast) The Laura Flanders Show and the recipient of a 2019 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship.


Jordan FlahertyJordan Flaherty is a producer of The Laura Flanders Show and the author of Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.


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