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Ebertfest Coverage - Day 2
Ebertfest - Trouble the Water
1:00 pm Apr 24 - by Matt Carey – buzz Writer
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This is the type of movie that I love seeing in theaters. With three-hour epics you get stuck with people who get bored and begin talking. With comedies there are the people that laugh so hard that you miss big chunks of dialogue. But a quiet, emotionally driven film like Trouble The Water is great to see with an audience that rolls along with every emotion the film throws at them, ranging from laughter to tears.
Trouble The Water tells the story of Kimberly and Scott Roberts, a married couple living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Since they had no way of getting out of the city because no public transportation was set up in the evacuation process, Kimberly decided to film the entire ordeal. The film splices footage of Kimberly’s alongside news footage, than follows Kimberly and Scott on there current lives after the hurricane.
Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz appeared on stage together before the film to introduce why Roger chose it. Chaz also didn’t miss the opportunity to wile the crowd up.
“You know what’s fun about this festival this year?” Chaz rhetorically asked. “The fact that Roger is able to be on stage.”
Chaz admitted that she had never seen Trouble The Water, which she said was odd because usually the movies Roger picks are all films that Roger has shown her.
Next Roger used his black Macbook to speak for him to tell the audience about the film.
“Watch this film and remember the words of our former president to FETA president Michael D. Brown ‘brownie you’re doing a heck of a job.’”
Before the film started, Kimberly and Scott Roberts appeared on stage with their young daughter Sky in their arms, alongside the films directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. Deal, an Urbana native, expressed how excited he was to be showing his film at the Virginia Theater in his hometown.
After the movie ended, the four special guests came back on stage for a Q & A hosted by none other than Ebert’s former television partner Richard Roeper. Roeper asked the directors what kind of story they were trying to tell with the film.
“We wanted to tell a character story,” Lessin said. “We wanted to do something different then what the news was doing by depicting the gulf community as helpless thieves.”
In the Q & A, Kimberly Roberts revealed that she and her husband were broke and the only thing they had left was her camera so they were trying to sell there footage to the media when they came along Deal and Lessin. Roberts admits that she wasn’t trying to make a documentary when she started filming, but more of a document for herself.
After the Q & A, Kimberly performed two songs from her new rap album. “Storm Hit” was the first song played and it was the first piece she wrote after her experience in Hurricane Katrina. Her second song was titled “Look Up” which she dedicated to anyone going through a tough experience in their lives.
With a great movie, entertaining interviews, and a concert, what more can you ask for?
Sound Off
Last post: Apr. 24, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Jeff Brandt (Jeff Brandt) said on Apr. 24, 2009 at 10:21 pm:
I will never get over the amazement of seeing that many old people with their hands in the air to a rap song. That was a real trip.