[UPDATE, 8/22/06: For the latest, up-to-date commentary on Spike Lee’s film — which I was in — please visit my homepage or my Katrina category.]
Life imitates Leahy! Today I’ve received an e-mail and a phone call from a producer for Spike Lee’s upcoming documentary about Hurricane Katrina. Apparently they want to interview the wunder-weatherblogger. I think I’m on minute 17 now, or maybe minute 18. :)
Brendan - Dude, seriously, be careful. Spike is on the record saying he things the government dynamited the levees and not only were apathetic to the black evacuees but want them to die (near verbatim from Bill Maher’s show).
Just saying you might want to be a little careful in getting your name put on whatever he puts out. Its not a leftie or rightie think, but lately, Spike seems to be in step with honorable (sarcasm) Farrakhan.
I was just going to ask, what kind of “controversial” documentary this was going to be, and is it something you want to be a part of? The government totally failed and blacks got screwed–and so did all those poor whites along the coast too, but if this is going to be a rant about how the government let black people die because they were black..
Bill Maher: ìYou did make a movie called Get on the Bus, which was about the Million Man March which was, I can’t believe it, ten years ago, and this past Saturday Lewis Farakhan did a kind of reunion of the Million Man March. I donÃt think we got a million people this time. But he was saying, last Saturday in Washington, that he thinks that the federal government, there was a conspiracy to actually blow up those levees so that they would flood the poor black districts in New Orleans. I have to tell you, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I don’t believe it. But when you see some of the things that have gone on in this country.î
Spike Lee: ìExactly. It’s not far-fetched. And also I would like to say it’s not necessarily blow it up. But, the residents of that ward, they believe it, there was a Hurricane Betsy in ‘65, the same that happened where a choice had to be made, one neighborhood got to save another neighborhood and flood another ‘hood, flood another neighborhood. Look, we’re in LA-î
Maher: ìThat’s been done before.î
Lee: ìWe’re in LA, and thereÃs an emergency situation, we called from Beverly Hills, we call from Compton. Which one the cops coming to first?î
Maher: ìRight. But that’s different than pro-actively blowing up a levee to flood one neighborhood. IÃm not saying itÃs not possible.î
Michel Martin: ìThat would require a conspiracy. I mean, look, we can all understand, anybody with any knowledge of history can understand why a lot of people can feel this way, that that’s a reasonable theory. But it would also require a conspiracy at three levels of government — the local, the state, and the federal. It would require no white residents-î
Lee: ìPresidents have been assassinated. So why is that so far-fetched?î
That is a man a little detached for reality, or, a little too invested in racial politics.
{Filmmaker Spike Lee thinks the federal government might have destroyed a levee to drive black people out of New Orleans while saving the white sections of the city after Hurricane Katrina. But it’s not clear he will push that notion in a documentary he will make for HBO.
Mr. Lee, in an interview Tuesday on CNN, said the documentary will be called “When the Levee Broke.”
When asked about the levee conspiracy theory, which apparently has gained credence among some New Orleans blacks, Mr. Lee said that “it’s not too far-fetched to think that, look, we got a bunch of poor black people here. We got to save these other neighborhoods. What we got to do, dump this in this ward, boom. I believe it.”
And when interviewer Daryn Kagan asked whether Mr. Lee really believed that theory, the director replied: “I don’t put anything past the United States government.”
But when asked whether he intended to prove that in his documentary, Mr. Lee said: “Well, no, no, no, no, no.”}
That’s from CNN, take from it what you will. Only posting this to inform.
Hmm I don’t know the full details of this so I don’t want to speculate too much, but since he never said anything specific it could be he simply believes the government tacitly allowed the levies to fail and all that. I would advise caution but I think Brendan is smart enough for that anyway.
I love how Spike Lee brings up Hurricane Betsy. “Well the levees didn’t fail during Betsy.” Nope. And Betsy didn’t sweep Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Waveland into the Gulf, either.
David - Abundance of caution. There was a time in the not-too distant past when Spike wasn’t halfway near unhinged. Pity he decided to go over the deep end.
And frankly, with how coy he is trying to act, I think he does think the government blew them up. Maybe he doesn’t, sure, but he is the one who keeps bringing it up.
This is getting to be more than 15 minutes of fame for you, Brendan!
I think the cautions from your readers above are wise, although I don’t think being present in such a documentary would necessarily align your views and Spike Lee’s. But just to be clear on that, you probably want to stand up and shout “FIGHT THE POWER!” several times when you’re queried on your interest in the weather.
“Thanks for the e-mail and phone call. I’m flattered that Mr. Lee would like to talk to me for this project.
I don’t know much about Mr. Lee’s documentary beyond little snippets I’ve read in the press, and God knows how inaccurate those can sometimes be. So I’m not pre-judging anything, but I just want to be clear about a few things before we move forward.
First of all, my personal belief is that the government’s failures with regard to Hurricane Katrina were the result of incompetence and negligence, not malice. I don’t believe there was any racial animus in what happened, and I believe such charges are deeply irresponsible, absent compelling factual evidence to the contrary (which I do not believe exists).
Secondly, my personal belief is that the government’s piss-poor preparation for, and response to, Hurricane Katrina was a failure at all levels: local, state and federal. Of all the guilty parties — and there are many — the person I hold most accountable for the deaths in New Orleans is Mayor Ray Nagin, for his inexcusable failure to devise a workable evacuation plan and put it into action with adequate time before the storm hit. The state government (Blanco, etc.) and the federal government (Brown, Chertoff, Bush, etc.) made a lot of mistakes after the storm hit, but in terms of the lives lost, all of those mistakes pale in comparison to the mistakes Nagin made before the storm hit.
Finally, barring actual evidence to back them up, I do not believe that conspiracy theories suggesting that the government intentionally breached the levees are within the realm of sane and rational discourse.
As I said, I’m not prejudging your project, I just wanted to lay this all out on the table from the beginning, because I would not want my views to be misrepresented or misinterpreted as supporting or lending credence to something that I strongly oppose (namely, “playing the race card” with regard to Katrina, and/or laying the entire blame at the feet of the federal government).
With that caveat, I’d be happy to meet with you and/or Mr. Lee, if you’re still interested in talking to me.”
(I then proceeded to talk about scheduling and such.)
Dunno if that’ll cause them to think better of including me, or if they’ll still be interested. We shall see.
Good for you, in both your deserved attention and your level head. I caught onto your blog last football season and have enjoyed your Trojan musings, but as I live in Texas your blog provided real, valuable information. I learned this year that hurricanes go from “Let’s get some beer and enjoy the storm!” to “Whoa, let’s get OUT of here!” to “Wait, we’re safe but everyone’s headed this way!” almost at once. This past hurricane season you were crucial hours ahead of everyone until the TV stations went to 24-hour storm coverage. Belated thanks, by the way.
Just be careful. You must already know that documentary filmmakers have the ability, if not always the inclination, to chop the most intelligent analysis to hash in order to fit the premise. And there’s no way to guard against it once the cameras roll.
Didn’t AA say something about Lee casting you as “The Man.” You just walked into it, brother. You are “The Man” that is holdin’ down Kanye West and his multi-million dollar empire.
“…documentary filmmakers have the ability, if not always the inclination, to chop the most intelligent analysis to hash in order to fit the premise. And there’s no way to guard against it once the cameras roll.”
Ah but theoretically there Is, texasyank. [By the way, f’Chrissakes come Home wouldyezpleeze, get Outta there. :] As a written contractual condition of Participation, insist on Veto power over the Final Cut of the interview. If You don’t Like it, It don’t Show. / Presumably they wouldn’t Agree to that ~ why Should they, it’s Their movie ~ but at least it would Clarify matters.
well, there is the very difficult trick of making sure there is no way to up cut your answer. This means no uhs or ums, and no throw away bits. It also means that you can’t pause between statement and vital context for more than a frame or two, which is about 1/15th of a second. Always include the question asked in the frame of your answer — but do not accept the premiss of the question if that is not something you want to talk about.
Okay, really, in practical terms there is no way to keep them from making hash of your interview. But there are ways to give editors fits trying to make hash of it, which is almost as good.
I saw the documentary and it reaffirms my belief that the govt has a total disdain for poor people and people of color. It was as good if not better than Farhenheit 9/11. Kudos to Sean Penn, college students of all ethnicities especially my white brothers who came on their own to help people in need. I sent money and food and made donations but it takes even bigger balls to go there and pull old ladies out of the mud. The govt does run acceptable loss scenarios to determine where the resources should go. This proble should have been fixed and it can olny be fixed with love, sacrifice and money. There is a Fed Reserve on Poydras. They could print enough money to get NO back up to speed. Too bad that these types of catastrophes will either bring out the best in the human spirit or the absolute worst. I think we saw it all. Keep up the good work Irish.
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November 14th, 2005 at 3:16:49 pm
You’re going to need to grow some more hair to help cover your soon to be even bigger head. ;)
November 14th, 2005 at 3:26:43 pm
Brendan - Dude, seriously, be careful. Spike is on the record saying he things the government dynamited the levees and not only were apathetic to the black evacuees but want them to die (near verbatim from Bill Maher’s show).
Just saying you might want to be a little careful in getting your name put on whatever he puts out. Its not a leftie or rightie think, but lately, Spike seems to be in step with honorable (sarcasm) Farrakhan.
November 14th, 2005 at 3:28:59 pm
I think its great, good for you Brendan! Congrats.. soak it up.
November 14th, 2005 at 3:30:39 pm
I was just going to ask, what kind of “controversial” documentary this was going to be, and is it something you want to be a part of? The government totally failed and blacks got screwed–and so did all those poor whites along the coast too, but if this is going to be a rant about how the government let black people die because they were black..
November 14th, 2005 at 3:39:33 pm
Watch out, Brendan! Spike is going to cast you in the role of “The Man” who is holding down Ray Nagin!
November 14th, 2005 at 3:43:57 pm
Bill Maher: ìYou did make a movie called Get on the Bus, which was about the Million Man March which was, I can’t believe it, ten years ago, and this past Saturday Lewis Farakhan did a kind of reunion of the Million Man March. I donÃt think we got a million people this time. But he was saying, last Saturday in Washington, that he thinks that the federal government, there was a conspiracy to actually blow up those levees so that they would flood the poor black districts in New Orleans. I have to tell you, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I don’t believe it. But when you see some of the things that have gone on in this country.î
Spike Lee: ìExactly. It’s not far-fetched. And also I would like to say it’s not necessarily blow it up. But, the residents of that ward, they believe it, there was a Hurricane Betsy in ‘65, the same that happened where a choice had to be made, one neighborhood got to save another neighborhood and flood another ‘hood, flood another neighborhood. Look, we’re in LA-î
Maher: ìThat’s been done before.î
Lee: ìWe’re in LA, and thereÃs an emergency situation, we called from Beverly Hills, we call from Compton. Which one the cops coming to first?î
Maher: ìRight. But that’s different than pro-actively blowing up a levee to flood one neighborhood. IÃm not saying itÃs not possible.î
Michel Martin: ìThat would require a conspiracy. I mean, look, we can all understand, anybody with any knowledge of history can understand why a lot of people can feel this way, that that’s a reasonable theory. But it would also require a conspiracy at three levels of government — the local, the state, and the federal. It would require no white residents-î
Lee: ìPresidents have been assassinated. So why is that so far-fetched?î
That is a man a little detached for reality, or, a little too invested in racial politics.
November 14th, 2005 at 3:46:24 pm
{Filmmaker Spike Lee thinks the federal government might have destroyed a levee to drive black people out of New Orleans while saving the white sections of the city after Hurricane Katrina. But it’s not clear he will push that notion in a documentary he will make for HBO.
Mr. Lee, in an interview Tuesday on CNN, said the documentary will be called “When the Levee Broke.”
When asked about the levee conspiracy theory, which apparently has gained credence among some New Orleans blacks, Mr. Lee said that “it’s not too far-fetched to think that, look, we got a bunch of poor black people here. We got to save these other neighborhoods. What we got to do, dump this in this ward, boom. I believe it.”
And when interviewer Daryn Kagan asked whether Mr. Lee really believed that theory, the director replied: “I don’t put anything past the United States government.”
But when asked whether he intended to prove that in his documentary, Mr. Lee said: “Well, no, no, no, no, no.”}
That’s from CNN, take from it what you will. Only posting this to inform.
November 14th, 2005 at 4:30:57 pm
Hmm I don’t know the full details of this so I don’t want to speculate too much, but since he never said anything specific it could be he simply believes the government tacitly allowed the levies to fail and all that. I would advise caution but I think Brendan is smart enough for that anyway.
November 14th, 2005 at 4:34:04 pm
I love how Spike Lee brings up Hurricane Betsy. “Well the levees didn’t fail during Betsy.” Nope. And Betsy didn’t sweep Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Waveland into the Gulf, either.
Dumbass.
November 14th, 2005 at 4:52:44 pm
David - Abundance of caution. There was a time in the not-too distant past when Spike wasn’t halfway near unhinged. Pity he decided to go over the deep end.
And frankly, with how coy he is trying to act, I think he does think the government blew them up. Maybe he doesn’t, sure, but he is the one who keeps bringing it up.
November 14th, 2005 at 6:41:58 pm
Brendan… I was the first one to say you were going to be in the movie!!!!!!!
November 14th, 2005 at 7:49:08 pm
This is getting to be more than 15 minutes of fame for you, Brendan!
I think the cautions from your readers above are wise, although I don’t think being present in such a documentary would necessarily align your views and Spike Lee’s. But just to be clear on that, you probably want to stand up and shout “FIGHT THE POWER!” several times when you’re queried on your interest in the weather.
November 14th, 2005 at 8:18:38 pm
Prepare for the Fahrenheit treatment.
November 14th, 2005 at 8:22:32 pm
Nahhhh, Andrew - Brendan has already grown almost as tall as he’s going to, even if Spike has a Mad Scientist Machine to use on him !
(grin)
November 14th, 2005 at 8:27:34 pm
Here is the e-mail I just wrote to the producer.
“Thanks for the e-mail and phone call. I’m flattered that Mr. Lee would like to talk to me for this project.
I don’t know much about Mr. Lee’s documentary beyond little snippets I’ve read in the press, and God knows how inaccurate those can sometimes be. So I’m not pre-judging anything, but I just want to be clear about a few things before we move forward.
First of all, my personal belief is that the government’s failures with regard to Hurricane Katrina were the result of incompetence and negligence, not malice. I don’t believe there was any racial animus in what happened, and I believe such charges are deeply irresponsible, absent compelling factual evidence to the contrary (which I do not believe exists).
Secondly, my personal belief is that the government’s piss-poor preparation for, and response to, Hurricane Katrina was a failure at all levels: local, state and federal. Of all the guilty parties — and there are many — the person I hold most accountable for the deaths in New Orleans is Mayor Ray Nagin, for his inexcusable failure to devise a workable evacuation plan and put it into action with adequate time before the storm hit. The state government (Blanco, etc.) and the federal government (Brown, Chertoff, Bush, etc.) made a lot of mistakes after the storm hit, but in terms of the lives lost, all of those mistakes pale in comparison to the mistakes Nagin made before the storm hit.
Finally, barring actual evidence to back them up, I do not believe that conspiracy theories suggesting that the government intentionally breached the levees are within the realm of sane and rational discourse.
As I said, I’m not prejudging your project, I just wanted to lay this all out on the table from the beginning, because I would not want my views to be misrepresented or misinterpreted as supporting or lending credence to something that I strongly oppose (namely, “playing the race card” with regard to Katrina, and/or laying the entire blame at the feet of the federal government).
With that caveat, I’d be happy to meet with you and/or Mr. Lee, if you’re still interested in talking to me.”
(I then proceeded to talk about scheduling and such.)
Dunno if that’ll cause them to think better of including me, or if they’ll still be interested. We shall see.
November 14th, 2005 at 9:37:56 pm
Brendan — Just don’t take your clothes off until you see the $$$.
November 14th, 2005 at 10:02:26 pm
Good for you, in both your deserved attention and your level head. I caught onto your blog last football season and have enjoyed your Trojan musings, but as I live in Texas your blog provided real, valuable information. I learned this year that hurricanes go from “Let’s get some beer and enjoy the storm!” to “Whoa, let’s get OUT of here!” to “Wait, we’re safe but everyone’s headed this way!” almost at once. This past hurricane season you were crucial hours ahead of everyone until the TV stations went to 24-hour storm coverage. Belated thanks, by the way.
Just be careful. You must already know that documentary filmmakers have the ability, if not always the inclination, to chop the most intelligent analysis to hash in order to fit the premise. And there’s no way to guard against it once the cameras roll.
November 14th, 2005 at 10:48:58 pm
Brendan-
Didn’t AA say something about Lee casting you as “The Man.” You just walked into it, brother. You are “The Man” that is holdin’ down Kanye West and his multi-million dollar empire.
November 14th, 2005 at 10:52:53 pm
Heh.
November 15th, 2005 at 2:59:34 am
Casey: LOL! (For this they would PAY??? Oy. :)
Brendan: Excellent.
“…documentary filmmakers have the ability, if not always the inclination, to chop the most intelligent analysis to hash in order to fit the premise. And there’s no way to guard against it once the cameras roll.”
Ah but theoretically there Is, texasyank. [By the way, f’Chrissakes come Home wouldyezpleeze, get Outta there. :] As a written contractual condition of Participation, insist on Veto power over the Final Cut of the interview. If You don’t Like it, It don’t Show. / Presumably they wouldn’t Agree to that ~ why Should they, it’s Their movie ~ but at least it would Clarify matters.
November 15th, 2005 at 10:01:50 am
well, there is the very difficult trick of making sure there is no way to up cut your answer. This means no uhs or ums, and no throw away bits. It also means that you can’t pause between statement and vital context for more than a frame or two, which is about 1/15th of a second. Always include the question asked in the frame of your answer — but do not accept the premiss of the question if that is not something you want to talk about.
Okay, really, in practical terms there is no way to keep them from making hash of your interview. But there are ways to give editors fits trying to make hash of it, which is almost as good.
August 30th, 2006 at 4:50:58 pm
I saw the documentary and it reaffirms my belief that the govt has a total disdain for poor people and people of color. It was as good if not better than Farhenheit 9/11. Kudos to Sean Penn, college students of all ethnicities especially my white brothers who came on their own to help people in need. I sent money and food and made donations but it takes even bigger balls to go there and pull old ladies out of the mud. The govt does run acceptable loss scenarios to determine where the resources should go. This proble should have been fixed and it can olny be fixed with love, sacrifice and money. There is a Fed Reserve on Poydras. They could print enough money to get NO back up to speed. Too bad that these types of catastrophes will either bring out the best in the human spirit or the absolute worst. I think we saw it all. Keep up the good work Irish.