Hurricane on the Bayou
Encyclopedia
Hurricane on the Bayou is a 2008 documentary film
that focuses on the wetlands of Louisiana
before and after Hurricane Katrina
.
Hurricane on the Bayou is both a documentary of Hurricane Katrina's effects and a call to restore Louisiana's wetlands, rebuild New Orleans, and honor the culture of the city. The film is narrated by actress Meryl Streep
and driven by a jazz
-, blues
-, Cajun
-, and gospel
-fueled soundtrack featuring Tab Benoit
, Amanda Shaw
, Mavis Staples
and Allen Toussaint
. It was originally a "what-if" scenario about a major hurricane impacting New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina. The film debuted at the Entergy
IMAX
in New Orleans, La., on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several months before being shown elsewhere.
The film begins in the bayou itself, as a family of alligators frolic in the water to the tune of the Cajun classic “Iko Iko.” The story then sets off on an historical exploration of how New Orleans rose up hundreds of years ago out of an untamed swampland – and went on to became celebrated around the world as “The Big Easy,” a place where a feeling of joyful freedom permeated the music, the food and the city’s inimitable talent for turning “good times” into an art form. Here, a spicy gumbo of African, Native American, Cajun, Creole and Southern influences forged a completely unique culture. Louisiana’s coastal location (the state contains 40% of all the coastal wetlands in the continental U.S. according to the National Wetlands Research Center) was both a boon and a bane to the city. New Orleans evolved into the busiest port in the U.S., but after engineers diverted the Mississippi River, depleting the wetlands, the city became increasingly vulnerable to the killer winds and rising waters of seasonal hurricanes.
Today, the situation grows more and more dangerous as every year Louisiana loses enough land to make up the island of Manhattan. Setting out for the mystery-tinged bayous with Tab Benoit and Amanda Shaw, Hurricane on the Bayou reveals how in the last 50 years, the natural coastal buffer that once sheltered New Orleans from severe storms has drastically deteriorated, endangering many unique animal and plant species and leaving the city wide open to Mother Nature’s ferocious forces. Spectacular flights over the Gulf of Mexico reveal the shocking reality that every half an hour, Louisiana loses a section of wetlands the size of a football field. Meanwhile, a side-trip into the vibrant swamplands probes how the bayou provides a fragile home to a family of alligators with newborn babies. Here, Tab Benoit explains that hope for New Orleans’ future will lie in concerted efforts to not only preserve but restore these wetlands by redirecting the Mississippi River’s silt and re-planting vital foliage.
Ultimately, the story builds to the monster storm that was Katrina and the crisis it brought to New Orleans, causing families to be separated, homes to be lost and one hundred square miles of wetlands and marshes to be destroyed by saltwater (including damaged caused by Hurricane Rita). Visceral, state-of-the-art CGI effects created by Hollywood specialists Sassoon Film Design recreates the fury of the storm, when fierce winds tore off the roof of the Superdome. Then, haunting, never-before-seen 70mm footage of the storm’s aftermath provides a shocking reminder of just how vast the storm’s devastation really was. Finally, returning to New Orleans in the bittersweet 2006 Mardi Gras season, the film reveals a city in the first throes of recovery – and reunites Allen Toussaint, Amanda Shaw, Chubby Carrier and Marva Wright for a passionate performance of a resonant modern hymn (written by the film’s composer Steve Wood) in the oldest Cathedral in North America, New Orleans’ elegant St. Louis Cathedral.
, Chubby Carrier
and The Neville Brothers
. Proceeds go to the Audubon Nature Institute. Though the film does not have a designated soundtrack, the film uses music samples from each of the musicians in the film. Iconic south Louisiana songs, such as “Iko Iko,” are also used in the documentary to place more emphasis on how cultured south Louisiana is. A Cajun theme generally influences each song.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
that focuses on the wetlands of Louisiana
Wetlands of Louisiana
The wetlands of Louisiana are water-saturated coastal and swamp regions of southern Louisiana.The Environmental Protection Agency defines wetlands as "those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal...
before and after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
.
Hurricane on the Bayou is both a documentary of Hurricane Katrina's effects and a call to restore Louisiana's wetlands, rebuild New Orleans, and honor the culture of the city. The film is narrated by actress Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
and driven by a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-, Cajun
Cajun music
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...
-, and gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
-fueled soundtrack featuring Tab Benoit
Tab Benoit
Tab Benoit is an American blues guitarist, musician and singer. He plays a style that is a combination of blues styles, primarily Delta blues. He plays a Fender Telecaster electric guitar and writes his own musical compositions. Benoit graduated from Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma,...
, Amanda Shaw
Amanda Shaw
Amanda Amaya Shaw is an American cajun fiddler, singer, and actress from Covington, Louisiana.- Musical training :Shaw received some of her early musical training in Southeastern Louisiana University's Community Music School. She studied classical violin starting at age 4, and at 8 began playing...
, Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
and Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
. It was originally a "what-if" scenario about a major hurricane impacting New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina. The film debuted at the Entergy
Entergy
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. It is headquartered in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:...
IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
in New Orleans, La., on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several months before being shown elsewhere.
Plot
In Hurricane on the Bayou, Meryl Streep introduces the audience to four charismatic New Orleans musicians: the legendary singer, songwriter, pianist, producer and Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Allen Toussaint; the impassioned Cajun Blues guitarist and wetlands activist Tab Benoit; the 14-year-old fiddling prodigy and rising teen sensation Amanda Shaw; and the man who discovered Amanda and helped produce her first album, the high-energy Zydeco accordion master Chubby Carrier. Each has an incredible story to tell about their love for Louisiana and their loss during Katrina.The film begins in the bayou itself, as a family of alligators frolic in the water to the tune of the Cajun classic “Iko Iko.” The story then sets off on an historical exploration of how New Orleans rose up hundreds of years ago out of an untamed swampland – and went on to became celebrated around the world as “The Big Easy,” a place where a feeling of joyful freedom permeated the music, the food and the city’s inimitable talent for turning “good times” into an art form. Here, a spicy gumbo of African, Native American, Cajun, Creole and Southern influences forged a completely unique culture. Louisiana’s coastal location (the state contains 40% of all the coastal wetlands in the continental U.S. according to the National Wetlands Research Center) was both a boon and a bane to the city. New Orleans evolved into the busiest port in the U.S., but after engineers diverted the Mississippi River, depleting the wetlands, the city became increasingly vulnerable to the killer winds and rising waters of seasonal hurricanes.
Today, the situation grows more and more dangerous as every year Louisiana loses enough land to make up the island of Manhattan. Setting out for the mystery-tinged bayous with Tab Benoit and Amanda Shaw, Hurricane on the Bayou reveals how in the last 50 years, the natural coastal buffer that once sheltered New Orleans from severe storms has drastically deteriorated, endangering many unique animal and plant species and leaving the city wide open to Mother Nature’s ferocious forces. Spectacular flights over the Gulf of Mexico reveal the shocking reality that every half an hour, Louisiana loses a section of wetlands the size of a football field. Meanwhile, a side-trip into the vibrant swamplands probes how the bayou provides a fragile home to a family of alligators with newborn babies. Here, Tab Benoit explains that hope for New Orleans’ future will lie in concerted efforts to not only preserve but restore these wetlands by redirecting the Mississippi River’s silt and re-planting vital foliage.
Ultimately, the story builds to the monster storm that was Katrina and the crisis it brought to New Orleans, causing families to be separated, homes to be lost and one hundred square miles of wetlands and marshes to be destroyed by saltwater (including damaged caused by Hurricane Rita). Visceral, state-of-the-art CGI effects created by Hollywood specialists Sassoon Film Design recreates the fury of the storm, when fierce winds tore off the roof of the Superdome. Then, haunting, never-before-seen 70mm footage of the storm’s aftermath provides a shocking reminder of just how vast the storm’s devastation really was. Finally, returning to New Orleans in the bittersweet 2006 Mardi Gras season, the film reveals a city in the first throes of recovery – and reunites Allen Toussaint, Amanda Shaw, Chubby Carrier and Marva Wright for a passionate performance of a resonant modern hymn (written by the film’s composer Steve Wood) in the oldest Cathedral in North America, New Orleans’ elegant St. Louis Cathedral.
Soundtrack
The music, produced by the Audubon Nature Institute, includes performances of the jazz, blues and gospel that appeared in the film, as well as samples of Dixieland and other pieces by Fats DominoFats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, Chubby Carrier
Chubby Carrier
Roy "Chubby" Carrier is an American zydeco musician. He is the leader of Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band.Carrier's father and grandfather both played zydeco music, and his cousins recorded under the name The Carrier Brothers. He was taught to play accordion by his father, Roy Carrier Sr.,...
and The Neville Brothers
The Neville Brothers
The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:The group notion started in 1976, when the four brothers of the Neville family, Art , Charles , Aaron , and Cyril The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in...
. Proceeds go to the Audubon Nature Institute. Though the film does not have a designated soundtrack, the film uses music samples from each of the musicians in the film. Iconic south Louisiana songs, such as “Iko Iko,” are also used in the documentary to place more emphasis on how cultured south Louisiana is. A Cajun theme generally influences each song.
External links
- Hurricane on the Bayou - A MacGillivray Freeman Film
- http://www.auduboninstitute.org
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102167.html