Wade in the Water

Wilie Batiste, Avis Brock, Jonathon Brookin, Alfred Cobbins, Barbara Cook

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, two filmmakers from New York offered a free filmmaking class at the first school to reopen in New Orleans after the flooding of the city. The students responded wit...( read more  )h such passion that the film "Wade in the Water" was unexpectedly created. This film is a composite of over 200 hours of the students' footage, creating a portrait of New Orleans from the perspective of the children who survived the worst of the storm and now live in the notoriously violent neighborhood of Central City. "Wade in the Water" recalls the universal experience of middle school, offers a glimpse of family life from within FEMA trailers and flooded homes and is constantly illuminated by the thoughts, secrets, fears and dreams of its student filmmakers. Because of the students' dedication to documenting their environment, "Wade in the Water" offers a intimate and disturbing impression of adolescent life in the aftermath of a continuing disaster