New Orleans ~ Post-Katrina Populist Funk
SPECIAL SHOWING: Modern Museum of Art, NYC Documentary Fortnight, February 21, ‘07 at 8PM.

Third World Newsreel is proud to announce that our Katrina Chronicles Series has been invited to MoMA’s prestigious Documentary Fortnight this coming month of February 2007. The Katrina Chronicles Series features short documentaries about the city and people of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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Katrina Chronicles Series

PEOPLE SAY:
>Disastrous Hurricanes, maritial law & curfews, housing crisis, toxic earth, closed schools and hospitals, abandoned elders, centuries of festering racism, a neo-police state… while the “New” New Orleans struggles to survive and exist outside of the the American illusion of democracy, the most dynamic grass roots efforts in the country claim the streets, deliver food, celebrate, build homes and tell the truth in this visual collage set to the song “People Say” by the legendary Nola band, the funky Meters.

This is no Red Cross special:

Fight For Your Rights & Please Support Self-Determaination and Equality for the Gulf South and all Peoples.

Related Links ::: Common Ground Collective, People’s Hurricane Relief Fund & Oversight Coalition, N.O. H.E.A.T., Resource Action Group, Mary Queen of Vietnam ChurchMississippi Muslim Association, NOAH Coalition, Hip Hop Caucus, People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond

“This insightful video montage embodies the full range of images, sights and emotions which followed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It also depicts the people’s hope, compassion and commitment to the city of New Orleans.
Mary Beth Black, 2005, 5 minutes” ~ Third World Newsreel

N.O. EAST ~ also by M.B.Black
Two months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes and communities, residents of New Orleans East are willing to rebuild their neighborhood with the support of city and federal agencies. But there is no water or electricity in New Orleans East and politicians promoting the rebuilding of the city forget to include this poor neighborhood in their grand plans. In this call for help, black and Vietnamese residents voice their concerns while they also try to return back home with the help of grassroots community organizations.
Mary Beth Black, 2005, 10 minutes

Also showing, more videos about post-Katrina New Orleans:

FINDING COMMON GROUND IN NEW ORLEANS
In this short documentary, activist and poet Walidah Imarisha travels to New Orleans and other neighboring towns shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. In her path she encounter grassroots organizations like Common Ground and Soul Patrol that were formed in response to the government’s failure to manage evacuation and relief efforts before, during and after the hurricane. She also finds Camp Amtrak, a makeshift jail and court room at an old bus station where inmates are sentenced to community service. Finally, she meets people in neighboring towns that are still waiting for FEMA to pays them a visit. Through interviews with residents, activists and city officials, Imarisha succinctly captures the pain, loss and hope of the people of New Orleans.
Walidah Imarisha, 2006, 23 minutes

I WON’T DROW IN THAT LEVEE AND YOU AIN’T GOING TO BREAK MY BACK
This short documentary began with an invitation to travel to New Orleans as part of a delegation to investigate what actually happened at the Orleans Parish Prison during and after Hurricane Katrina. What came up was not only a botched and deadly evacuation of the prison, but a broader climate of racial tension and brutality throughout the local and Federal response to the disaster, where the population was divided into survivors and looters along lines of race

UPDATE: January 18, 2007
SCREENING at the Modern Museum of Art, NYC Documentary Fortnight February 2007 W/ other New Orleans shorts sponsored by Third World Newsreel

UPDATE: February 1, 2006

Mr. Ollie Jackson is living in the same circumstances in New Orleans East, without electricity and drinking water. His health is worsening and he needs heart medication and medical care. He does not have transportation, a telephone, mail delivery and he cannot read or write. He still needs assistance accessing his benefits and the relief due to him as well as finding safe housing in his community. To provide support for Mr. Ollie, please contact: holographicferriswheel@yahoo.com.

New Orleans East: October & November 2005

New Orleans East is a large part of New Orleans and totally flooded and devastated by Hurricane Katrina. This predominantly African-American and Southeast Asian community to this day remains in the shadows of house-high piles of trash and waste. Utities, including water and electricity, are intermittant - if at all, and residents openly ask for recognition and aid. Some community elders, who stayed since the hurricane, remain without governmental aid, including contact with Red Cross or FEMA. Neighbors and community members are the first responders, with relief support from grass roots organizations and the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, which drew thousands of Versailles community members from Houston and other evacuee areas to its re-opening in October.

This video documents some of these voices and the relief efforts of Resource Action Group

Related Links ::: Resource Action Group

VIDEO re-Mix: A Small Band of Public Housing Rights Advocates gathered at the Iberville Projects and Marched down Canal Street calling for the Re-opening of habitable public housing and schools
Click Image to Download the VIDEO 8 mgs 3 minutes

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT! Public Housing Update, January 15, 2007:

SURVIVORS VILLAGE

MLK Day: St. Bernard Residents Go through Fence, Clean Out Apartments
New Orleans, LA (January 15, 2007) -With mops and buckets in hand,
displaced residents of the St. Bernard Public Housing Project will go
through the barbed wire fence surrounding their homes to clean and
rehabilitate them. On Monday, January 15, Martin Luther King Day, the
residents will rally at 12:00pm at Bynum Drugs Store, 3838 St. Bernard
Ave, and then enter the property to restore their homes at 12:30.

“Our homes are livable, and we are cleaning them out so that we can
live in them,” says Sharon Seans Jasper, a St. Bernard resident and
organizer. “We will not let the city destroy them.”

“The residents who will be cleaning their apartments have current
leases and therefore have a legal right to enter their homes,” says
rally organizer Endesha Juakali of Survivors Village. “However, the
police may not honor this right. Therefore public housing residents
will be evoking the spirit of Dr. King on this Martin Luther King
Day.”

HANO and HUD plan to demolish over 5000 units of affordable public
housing, housing that is desperately needed for families that wish to
move back to New Orleans. In a market where rents have increased
between 70 and 300 percent since Katrina, inflated rents and the lack
of subsidized housing has been a major factor in preventing evacuees
from returning to their homes. Finding private landlords that accept
housing vouchers is extremely difficult, and finding affordable
housing without subsidization is nearly impossible for public housing
recipients.

HUD’s own cost analysis reveals that their plan to demolish and
rebuild will waste taxpayers’ money. A recent motion for summary
judgment filed in a current suit to reopen the development (available
at: http://justiceforneworleans.org) cites HUD documents that show the
demolition and redevelopment of public housing “will end up costing
over $175 million more than extensively modernizing the developments,
and upwards of $450 million more than simply repairing them would
cost.” The motion also argues that the demolitions have racial
implications. “Prior to Katrina over 5,100 African-American families
lived in New Orleans’ public housing. Nearly 14 months later, only
approximately 1,000 have been allowed to return. HANO’s actions
clearly have disproportionately harmed African-Americans and have lead
to the overall decline in the city’s African American population since
Katrina.”

Despite overwhelming support for the re-opening of public housing,
HANO and HUD have consistently ignored public opinion and advocated
for its demolition. HANO has received a resounding and unquestionable
“NO!” to their plans from public housing residents at their recent
court-mandated ‘resident consultation meeting’. Angry residents
accused HANO of “ethnic cleansing,” and told them “being poor is not a
crime.”

Media contact: Endesha Juakali / survivorsvillage@gmail.com /
504.239.2907 or 504.284.6975
Stephanie Mingo / vmingo@bellsouth.net / 504.529.3171
January 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIDEO: repost: On Saturday, December 3, 2005, immediately following the Hurricanes of infamy, a band of housing rights advocates gathered at the Iberville Projects on Basin St. Saturday in support of New Orleans residents’ right to return to their homes and called for the re-opening of the city’s public schools (2 or 3 public schools are open in Orleans Parish now). With 80% of the city flooded from hurricanes Katrina & Rita, and over a million Gulf South residents dislocated from their lives, the housing shortage, rapidly rising rents, and lack of sustainable government supports faces many thousands of people who wish to return to their homes and rebuild their lives. Evictions - both illegal and legal - are epidemic in the New Orleans area and returning home or the lack of ability to return to a home, rain down further struggles on the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In particular, people who needed public assistance to meet basic needs and the right to their home find the rug pulled out from under them as the city makes plans to tear down public housing, closing even livable and marginally damaged housing with little or no dialogue with displaced residents.

Less than 20% of pre-hurricane residents actually reside in New Orleans now, which currently hosts thousands of new building contractors, laborors, developers and gaggles of various military, security and law enforcement personel now set up shop in the no-flood zones, in a former arts high school, on enormous cruise ships and in public spaces in the city centers. With 80% of the city flooded and by devastating hurricanes, evictions, both illegal and legal, happen quickly, often with little or no legal formality with as few as 5 days or no notice at all in this tumultuous housing market and with little or no regard for any notion of housing rights. Residents of the cities extensive public housing wish to return home and reclaim their lives - or at least check on their home - however there is little dialogue with the Housing Aughority of New Orleans and information that HANO housing will be closed and bulldozed circulates fear and anger from displaced survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Despite the fact that most New Orleans residents are out of town, a few dozen marchers gathered in front of the Iberville Public Housing projects just outside of the French Quarter to show support for the city’s poor and working people and marched freely down Canal Street to the Federal encampment by the Mississippi Riverwalk. The marchers called for the re-opening of habitable public housing and public schools, dialogue and the right of residents to return home. The Coalition to Save Iberville, New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team (NO HEAT), the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and Common Ground Eviction Defense represented at the march and can be contacted for support of Housing Rights.

Housing Is A Human Right.

Related Links ::: Common Ground Collective, Loyola Law Clinic Katrina Help Site, People’s Hurricane Relief Fund & Oversight Coalition

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

Take a step back in time at the B. W. Cooper Housing Projects with Malik Rahim cofounder of the Common Ground Collective hurricane relief organization and former Black Panther. Malik speaks of the history of the Black Panther Party and the cultural significance of the Projects.

B.W. Cooper Projects are slated for destruction while much of the city’s returned citizens are sleeping in cars or tents .. or in outlying areas. Thousands of people could be living there right now yet the city will not allow them to reopen.

Related Links ::: Common Ground Collective, History of the Black Panther Party