'Trouble the Water'

Thankfully, New Orleans appears to have dodged the Gustav bullet.

Last Friday, three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, I went to see the recently released Katrina documentary Trouble the Water. A true and in some ways incredible portrayal of an aspiring rap artist and her husband's battle to survive after being trapped in their flooded home, there wasn't a dry eye in the house by the time the final credits rolled.

As the New York Times' Manohla Dargis put it, "One of the best American documentaries in recent memory, the film was directed and produced by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, a couple of New Yorkers who, like much of the rest of the world, were watching television in horror in 2005 as the natural disaster was quickly followed by a human one."

I urge you to see the film when it comes to your local movie house. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer on YouTube:

-- Regina Mahone