November 3, 2008 | Documentarians Carl Dean and Tia Lessin were all set to make a movie about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – specifically, about National Guardsmen, newly returned from Iraq, who were readying to restore order in storm-battered New Orleans -- when a force of nature named Kimberly River Roberts gate-crashed into their project.

A would-be rapper and self-described “street hustler,” Kimberly -– a large, handsome African-American woman of 24 aptly described by film critic David Denby as having the “presence of lioness” -– approached the filmmakers at a Red Cross shelter near the National Guard armory in Alexandria, La. She told them that she and her husband, Scott Roberts, had remained in their Lower Ninth Ward home when Katrina slammed into New Orleans. And that she had captured images of rising waters and mounting panic with her newly purchased camcorder.

Dean and Lessin were amazed by her footage. But they were even more impressed by Kimberly, who ultimately became, along with her husband, the centerpiece of Trouble the Water, an extraordinary documentary about breached levees, broken promises and rebuilt lives. Winner of the Best Documentary prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the film uses Kimberly’s video as a kind of thematic thread to connect episodes in a nonfiction narrative charged with alternating currents of outage and regeneration, tragedy and transcendence.

Before introducing opening weekend screenings of their documentary at the Angelika Film Center, Dean and Lessin sat down to tell some stories behind the story they tell in Trouble the Water.

Q: At what point did you realize just how lucky you were to have had Kimberly Roberts drop into your lives?

CARL DEAN: Well, Kimberly has an amazing way of expressing herself – very unique – that we found very compelling right off the bat. When she came up to us and said she had the footage “back at the house,” I was a little confused at first. And I thought, “Well, how could she have a house here in Alexandria?”But it turned out that she was talking about her uncle’s trailer, where she and Scott staying. So we went back with then, and got to know them a little bit better. And we didn’t really look at her footage for a couple of days. But the thing is, we didn’t feel we really needed to. Because they were compelling enough, with the stories they were telling.

TIA LESSIN: Of course, I have to admit, when she kept talking about the footage, I found myself thinking, “Well, does she really have it? Because we’re not seeing it.”

DEAN: Yeah, it was like she was making a really good pitch.

LESSIN: And when we finally did see it, Kimberly showed it to us on her camcorder, so we had to look at it through the viewfinder. And we were blown away.

DEAN: And even then, it was like she was still pitching it. She kept wanting to hit the fast-forward, saying, “Let me show you this part. Let me show you that part.” And we had to say, “No! No! You’re gonna ruin the tape.” And, yeah, we were really stunned by what we saw. It was very clearly not like anything we’d seen on television. And her voice, and her real-time description of what she was seeing, was just as powerful as the images themselves. That’s when we decided to go back to New Orleans with her and Scott, and make them the focus of our film.

Q: Trouble the Water  has received rave reviews – and, by documentary standards, large audiences – just about everywhere it has been shown. But how did it play in New Orleans?

LESSIN: Surprisingly well. We were afraid we’d encounter, you know, something like Katrina fatigue. But it played for four or five weeks, at the Canal Place Theater near the end of Canal Street. We were stunned even more than the people running the theater. I think they told us we had the most successful run for any film they’d had there since Katrina. We honestly felt that people in New Orleans might not want to go through with Katrina all over again, on the screen. But they really seemed to be drawn to it.

Q: Is it true that that when you showed Trouble the Water for delegates and lawmakers at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin actually walked out after five minutes?

LESSIN: Well, what happened was, Mayor Nagin had been drafted to introduce the film. But, unfortunately, he got there about a half hour, 40 minutes late – too late to introduce the film, but not too late for his photo opportunity with Kimberly and Scott and us. Well, Kimberly and Scott had never met their mayor before. I mean, they’d seen him on TV, but they’d never met him in person. And she took advantage of that opportunity to ask him some questions that he wasn’t particularly happy to answer…

DEAL: And there happened to be a TV camera there. You can actually see a video of the thing on the Democracy Now website. The thing is, Kimberly didn’t challenge him in what most people would consider to be an inappropriate way. Myself, I think it’s always appropriate to challenge your public officials. And what better place to do it than at a political convention? But she just asked some questions – and they were forward-looking questions. Like, “What are you going to do about the economy? We need jobs.” She probably had a lot to be angry at Nagin for, but she didn’t go there. But it was still too much for him. And he resented it.

LESSIN: So he went into the film after that. He couldn’t get away from Kimberly fast enough. He went in – and stayed there for about five minutes. Now, in his defense, he had to keep monitoring events back in New Orleans, because Hurricane Gustav was coming through. But his wife and his assistant also came in to see it -– late.

DEAL: They actually came into just when Kimberly was taping her uncle drunk and passed out on his steps. Which probably was not the most opportune moment for them to walk in on.

LESSIN: And they watched only a few minutes more before they walked out. And they took us to task. Particularly Nagin’s wife. She said that it was a negative portrayal of the city of New Orleans, that if she’d seen a DVD first, they’d never come to the screening. 

DEAL: To us, this really shows the disconnect between the different communities within New Orleans, and the people with power. Kimberly is really a beloved figure in her city after this film. And so is Scott. More than that, the film had given them a sort of platform, so that they really represent New Orleans to a lot of people in the rest of the world. So we’re really kind of disappointed that the mayor and his people didn’t want to embrace that. Because the very week this happened in Denver, Kimberly’s picture was in Time magazine.

Q: Have you spent much time in New Orleans since completing Trouble the Water?

DEAL: We’ve been back every couple months during the past three years. And we’ve noticed very, very little material progress. But at the same time, always more determination on the part of the residents of New Orleans as more and more people go back. Kimberly and Scott have kind of become community activists.

LESSIN: And they’re not alone. We’ve been traveling a lot with this film. And everywhere we show it, we find New Orleaneans there. Either people who had evacuated, or just New Orleans natives who have been away for a very long time. And they have such love and affection for that city – it’s almost like they’re all ex-pats. They’re all still bound by their love for the place.