| Trouble the Water | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tia Lessin Carl Deal |
| Produced by | Tia Lessin Carl Deal |
| Cinematography | PJ Raval and Kimberly Rivers Roberts |
| Edited by | T. Woody Richman |
| Music by | Davidge Del Naja Black Kold Madina |
| Distributed by | Zeitgeist Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Trouble the Water is a 2008documentary film produced and directed byTia Lessin andCarl Deal. The film centers on a young couple survivingHurricane Katrina, and facing their own troubled past during the storm's aftermath. It features music byMassive Attack,Mary Mary,Citizen Cope,John Lee Hooker,The Roots,Dr. John and Blackkoldmadina.Trouble the Water was distributed byZeitgeist Films and premiered in theaters inNew York City andLos Angeles on August 22, 2008, followed by a national release.
Trouble the Water opens with the filmmakers meeting 24-year-old aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott at aRed Cross shelter inCentral Louisiana, then flashes back two weeks, with Kimberly turning her new video camera on herself and her neighbors trapped in their9th Ward attic as the storm rages.
The film combines Roberts' footage of the day before and the morning of the storm with archival news segments, other home videos, andverité footage filmed over two years.Trouble the Water explores issues of race, class, and the relationship of the government to its citizens.
The film appeared on two critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[1]
Trouble the Water was distributed inFrance, with Celine Prost translating theFrench subtitles.
The film was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2008 and anEmmy Award for best informational program in 2010. It won theGrand Jury Prize Documentar at the2008 Sundance Film Festival;[2] the Grand Jury Award, the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights, and the Working Films Award at the 2008Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; and the Special Jury Prize at the 2008AFI Docs festival.
The film won theGotham Award for best documentary and the Council on Foundation's Henry Hampton Award. It has also been nominated for anNAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary and aProducers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Motion Picture.
TheAfrican-American Film Critics Association and theAlliance of Women Film Journalists named the film the best documentary of 2008, and it finished second for theNational Film Critics Circle Award. It also won the 2008 Working Films Award, the 2010 Harry Chapin Media Award, and was the official selection for the 2008New Directors/New Films Festival.
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by | Sundance Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary 2008 | Succeeded by |