Kamp Katrina

(Docu) A Carnivalesque Films production. Produced by Deborah Smith, Dale Smith, Ashley Sabin. Directed by Ashley Sabin, David Redmon.

By JOE LEYDON

A worthy addition to the steadily increasing array of docs about life and strife in post-Katrina New Orleans, "Kamp Katrina" is a frequently affecting but nonjudgmental look at a makeshift mini-community of survivors. Filmmakers Ashley Sabin and David Redmon may catch grief in certain PC quarters for focusing almost entirely on working-class and lower-middle-class whites -- specifically, the sort of New Orleaneans often referred to in local slang as "yats" (as in, "Where yat, darlin'?") Oddly enough, however, pic winds up being all the more fascinating because race isn't an issue as tensions rise among earthy folks in close quarters.

Two New Orleans natives -- construction worker David Cross and his casually flamboyant Native American wife, known as Ms. Pearl -- open up the backyard of their Alvar Street home (in an Upper 9th Ward neighborhood that suffered relatively little hurricane damage) for other locals who have been displaced by Katrina.

At first, the "Kamp Katrina" residents -- including a religious zealot who claims to be conversant with Joan of Arc -- are on their best behavior as they pay their keep by working for David's home-repair outfit. But as the days drag by, their frayed nerves, often fueled by alcohol and drugs, lead to bad behavior and violent outbursts.

Without casting blame or denying hope, the filmmakers indicate that the struggle to survive in the wake of a disaster such as Katrina can bring out the worst (as well as the best) in some folks -- and that good intentions are sometimes not enough when dealing with people who either can't or won't recover. Pic is especially upsetting as it observes a pregnant former crack addict gradually backsliding while coping with a hard-drinking, physically abusive husband. Auds cannot help wondering whether, even if Katrina hadn't happened, the outcome for this couple would have been pretty much the same.

"Kamp Katrina" doesn't shy away from criticism of New Orleans city officials, who appear all too eager to close down survivor campsites when neighbors complain about the influx of undesirables. But pic also sounds a conciliatory note when it suggests not even widespread flooding after a cataclysmic hurricane can completely dampen spirits in a city where partying hearty is a way of life. Final minutes achieve potent dramatic and emotional impact as Ms. Pearl and her husband remain willing to host the homeless.

On tech level, "Kamp Katrina" boasts some surprisingly artful, even beautiful visual flourishes. Here and there, it's obvious the filmmakers were extraordinary lucky to have their DV cameras in the right place at the right time, such as when they use a fortuitously positioned billboard with a Mardi Gras theme to provide wrenchingly ironic counterpoint for an ineffably sad real-life drama.

Camera (color, DV), editors, Tim Messler, Sabin, Redmon; music, Eric Taxier; sound, Sabin, Redmon. Reviewed on DVD, Houston, April 9, 2007. (In SXSW, Dallas AFI, Nashville film festivals.) Running time: 73 MIN.

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http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&r=VE1117933374&c=31

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