I still remember the first time I saw Do The Right Thing. I was 12 or 13, leaning against the couch in a friend’s living room, trying not to look mesmerized by the unorthodox characters shouting from the TV as her older brother watched movie on VHS. I asked him where all this fabulous chaos was happening, and he shook his head without looking at me and said, “um, Brooklyn, duh,” before delving back into his Cheetos. Since then I’ve watched every Spike Lee joint. Some I liked, some I didn’t, but one thing that can’t be said about his films is that they haven’t been significant in forcing conversations about race and culture.
In When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Lee has captured a tragedy with unmatched authenticity. The film provides a conflicting four hours of television; it isn’t fun or easy to watch, and it runs every emotion through its full paces at top speed. But humans, whether we like it or not, are a social and codependent species, and perhaps the only thing worse than needless suffering is subsequent invalidation and apathy from the community. At the very least, devoting four hours of our time to watching the victims’ stories may spare them a little of that additional pain.
Remembering the French Quarter Laser Show (The Huffington Post)