Back in January, we reported that Spike Lee and his crew were heading back to New Orleans to begin filming a sequel to his massive and celebrated documentary “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts.” The HBO production was a critically-lauded look at the city of New Orleans as it suffered and survived through one of the worst natural disasters to ever land in the United States. The film won three Emmys and ranked in the top five of our list of the best documentaries of the last decade. Well, it appears Lee’s focus is going to expand slightly in his followup.
Anne Thompson reports that Spike Lee is currently filming in Haiti and the footage will be included in his sequel effort. The parallels between New Orleans and Haiti are fairly evident: a natural disaster the nearly obliterated a place off the map; largely poor and minority groups suffered the worst of the respective events and rebuilding projects are moving slowly. As for the reasons the shoot has moved to Haiti, Producer John Kilik says “You’ll get it when you see it.” Though we think it’s pretty clear. Frankly, the situation that hit Haiti is fodder enough for its own standalone documentary but if the size of the sequel is anything close to that of “When The Levees Broke,” we’re sure it won’t just be a casual mention.
There’s still no word yet on when we might see this, but given that it’s still shooting, it probably won’t air until sometime next year.
