The Circuit

by N'neka Hite
LA Femme Film Festival celebrated its closing night Sunday with the screening of “America Betrayed” the first documentary by helmer Leslie Carde'. Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, the topical doc focused on how the U.S. Government benefits from domestic and global disasters.

Carde’, who shot the film 18 months ago and has also worked as a documentarian for CNN and NBC, offered a new take on Hurricane Katrina by suggesting it was one of the catalysts for the Great American Credit Debacle. She also shared how the financing of the film came about.

“The people that wanted this made were lots of small groups across America who had a little bit of money here and a little bit of money there, who came together and said there’s a story here that hasn’t been told - that we’re not seeing on the nightly news” Carde’ recalled.

“I think that when people see this there going to see it was a lot more than just a credit crunch that’s making this country fall apart,” Carde told Variety. “We’re so busy feeding money to corporate America that we’ve lost sight of our own country and what’s best for the taxpayers here. Because the taxpayers are not only funding the war that cost $10 billion dollars a month, but they’re funding even more for reconstructing that area.”

The doc points out that Americans can’t seem to get away from reconstruction as different natural disasters, international conflicts, and financial crises take their toll every year.

“Why is everybody only talking about their failure to respond here? What about the mess that caused this in the first place? When I was in New Orleans, people were leaving me manila envelopes, unsigned, anonymously. That’s how I found half the people; these whistleblowers, by these citizens coming forward and saying, ‘I’m going to leave you a phone number but I can’t tell you who I am.’”