Trouble the Water

By following Scott and Kimberly Roberts, a couple from New Orleans’ stricken Ninth Ward, through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin create an eyewitness epic of history in miniature. The movie’s first and more gripping half consists largely of Kimberly’s camcorder footage, and its images are starkly surreal. News of the outside world arrives from someone floating by on a punching bag, while a stranger paddles down the street in a washtub. Weeks later, the two return to a deserted Ninth Ward: a ghostscape patrolled by lost dogs and warily accommodating National Guardsmen. The second half, which catches up with Kimberly and Scott and a companion, Brian Nobles, after they’ve sought shelter outside New Orleans, doesn’t have the staggering otherworldliness of the camcorder footage. But the outrage of Katrina’s mishandling still comes flooding back, fresh as a slap.