Dos Americas:
The Reconstruction of New Orleans

Post-Katrina reconstruction is still in progress throughout the Gulf Coast, with much of the City of New Orleans still in ruins. This documentary focuses on those rebuilding this city through interviews with some of the estimated 100,000 Latino migrant laborers who have converged in this area over the past two and a half years. Despite terrible working conditions, massive fraud, a housing crisis, severe harassment by law enforcement, and very limited resources, New Orleans’ Latino community has mushroomed since the storm and is establishing an infrastructure proportional to its size.

Take a look at how this community is organizing to defend itself against numerous injustices and the attempts to bridge the gap between themselves as new residents and the pre-Katrina population, all within the extremely unique and tragic context of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Presentado en inglés y español.

Down But Not Out

On August 29, 2006 Hurricane Katrina attacked the Gulf Coast of the United States. A Category-5 hurricane, Katrina destroyed entire towns and left a trail of destruction in her wake. But the impact was magnified by city, state, and federal government negligence, and in no city was there a better example of the government’s failure than in New Orleans, where thousands were killed—both by water and bullets—and hundreds of thousands were left behind to save themselves.

In early August 2006, almost one year after the disaster, survivors sit down and talk about their experiences of fighting for survival in the days following Katrina, and how their lives have progressed since returning to New Orleans. Providing accounts of living in a city whose populace has largely been forgotten, the survivors give a stinging description of a slow reconstruction process that is ignoring the human cost of rebuilding. Down But Not Out shows the people directly affected by the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, and lets those who experienced it tell the stories themselves.

Southern California Library

6120 S. Vermont Ave.

San Jose State University

Part of events commemorating the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Details TBA

Make the Road

(Bushwick, Brooklyn)

301 Grove St.

Bluestockings

(Lower East Side, Manhattan)

172 Allen St. btw. Stanton and Rivington