from The Root.com
With the help of its Oscar nod, the Katrina doc Trouble the Water has brazenly summoned the voices and spirits of those-who by force or choice-have not returned since the hurricane.
***
Katrina's Second Line
by Mark Anthony Neal
...Trouble the Water serves as tribute to those who were lost in the storm. In that way, the film serves as a kind of “second line” performance—the parade of dancing, shuffling bodies that occurs, often after a funeral. According to musician Michael White, “at the time of their origin, these parades offered the black community an euphoric transformation into a temporary world characterized by free open participation and self expression through sound, movement and symbolic visual statements.”
White adds that in the moment, the second line obliterates social class and status. “...one could be or become things not generally open to blacks in the normal world: competitive, victorious, defiant, equal, unique, hostile, humorous, aloof, beautiful, brilliant, wild, sensual, and even majestic.”
Indeed, Trouble the Water serves as a triumphant and critical reminder to a nation that would rather ignore the dead bodies that were sacrificed and cultural gifts that New Orleans gave our country. And that in itself is troubling.
Read the Full Essay HERE
With the help of its Oscar nod, the Katrina doc Trouble the Water has brazenly summoned the voices and spirits of those-who by force or choice-have not returned since the hurricane.
***
Katrina's Second Line
by Mark Anthony Neal
...Trouble the Water serves as tribute to those who were lost in the storm. In that way, the film serves as a kind of “second line” performance—the parade of dancing, shuffling bodies that occurs, often after a funeral. According to musician Michael White, “at the time of their origin, these parades offered the black community an euphoric transformation into a temporary world characterized by free open participation and self expression through sound, movement and symbolic visual statements.”
White adds that in the moment, the second line obliterates social class and status. “...one could be or become things not generally open to blacks in the normal world: competitive, victorious, defiant, equal, unique, hostile, humorous, aloof, beautiful, brilliant, wild, sensual, and even majestic.”
Indeed, Trouble the Water serves as a triumphant and critical reminder to a nation that would rather ignore the dead bodies that were sacrificed and cultural gifts that New Orleans gave our country. And that in itself is troubling.
Read the Full Essay HERE
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