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Bearing Witness to Disaster: review of “And the Floods Came: Nebraska 2019”

In March 2019, documentary filmmakers Bill Kelly and Chris Flannery set out to capture footage in Nebraska to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for them: Their filming schedule in Boyd and Knox counties coincided with one of the most severe flooding incidents in recorded history, and by many accounts the worst disaster ever to hit the state. And the Floods Came: Nebraska 2019 is a stunning example of the ability of a heads-up camera crew — and everyday citizens — to pivot and document history unfolding around them.

As the film makes clear, “the impact of severe weather for several days in March in Nebraska will last for years.” Using images captured by the professional team and hundreds of affected citizens, the film bears witness to the awesome and destructive power of rainwater, when it gathers and floods beyond the capacity of our rivers and engineered infrastructure systems.

As was made clear a decade ago when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans (and documented in a number of excellent films; check out When the Levees Broke and Trouble the Waters), once again, the story of flooding interweaves both natural and man-made disasters, as dams and other flood-control mechanisms proved inadequate to the sheer volume of water produced by this “bomb cyclone.” Bridges collapsed, and entire towns were left cut off and stranded from aid. All told, the damage was estimated to be over $1.3 billion statewide.

But along with documenting the disaster, fear, and loss — of lives, homes, and communities — the film also highlights the region’s spirit of resilience as the state grieves and rebuilds — and begins to prepare for the next disaster.

From the May 2020 issue of Planning Magazine.

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When Your Zip Code Is a Health Risk: review of “Cooked: Survival by Zip Code”

In these days of global pandemics, hurricanes, floods, raging wildfires, and other disasters of seemingly biblical proportions, it can be hard to remember how devastating even a simple heat wave can be — especially when the conditions of poverty, aging, urban air pollution, and failing infrastructure combine, as they did in Chicago 25 years ago. In the summer of 1995, the heat index spiked to more than 126 degrees, leading to the death of more than 700 residents in just one week.

This human-made tragedy is the subject of Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, a new PBS/Independent Lens documentary by Judith Helfand based on Eric Klinenberg’s excellent 2002 book, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Courtesy Kartemquin Films.

As the film explores, most of the victims were low income, elderly, and Black, and they died alone and isolated — killed more by social neglect, structural racism, and poor planning than the heat itself. For people living on the edge — both physically and economically — access to a reliable electric grid, an air-conditioned library or senior center, or even just a simple crosstown bus can mean the difference between life and death.

At the heart of this analysis is a simple and striking “heat death map,” which uses the basic tools of spatial analysis familiar to most planners to make the case, finding “almost perfect overlaps” between neighborhoods with the most heat-related deaths and those with the highest levels of poverty.

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The film is available for streaming. Viewers will also find extensive background and follow-up material on this pressing and oft-ignored challenge.

From Planning Magazine.

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Review of “The Hottest August”

Assembled from meandering footage shot in New York City’s outer boroughs over a single summer month in 2017, The Hottest August is ostensibly about the effects of climate change on urban neighborhoods. But what emerges from director Brett Story’s artful and meditative treatment is so much more: a disquieting inquiry into an unsettling age of fear in the face of an uncertain future.

Blending irony with classic cinéma vérité, the camera captures daily discussions and street-corner interactions, from barroom conversations (“talk sports, never politics”) to the mystical peregrinations of a space-suit wearing “Afronaut” who has journeyed back from the future to exchange knowledge and experiences across time (only in New York!).

If we are willing to suspend our need for a linear narrative and surrender to this seemingly random assortment of encounters, what emerges is a powerful new form of film. As the emotions of these people and places seep into our unconscious mind, we uncover a profound portrait of a community perched on the edge of oblivion — ecologically, economically, existentially; what the filmmakers refer to as “a portrait of collective anxiety.”

From the December 2019 issue of Planning Magazine.

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Review of “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch”

Earth has entered a new geological epoch in its 4.5-billion year history. Just as the Pleistocene gave way to the Holocene 12,000 years ago, our planet is now in the “Anthropocene,” characterized by the pervasive effects of human impact on a global scale.

Exploring this “Human Epoch” — how we got here and what it means for our future survival — is the subject of Anthropocene, an artful and meditative new documentary, third in a series from the filmmaking team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky.

From Siberia to the Great Barrier Reef, Anthropocene explores the ways our technologies, settlements, and patterns of consumption and waste have altered every environment and ecosystem on the planet. The camera captures beautiful, striking, and terrifying images of the awesome power and epic scale of modern human enterprises. From open-pit mining in Germany to vast lithium processing fields in Chile, from China’s great sea wall to Nairobi’s sprawling landfills, humanity has literally become a geological force: we are terraforming our own planet through everything we do.

More often than not, these changes are found to be both dangerous — to humans or other life forms — and irreversible. The film strives to end with a hopeful message: As with any sort of addiction, recognizing the problem may be the first step towards positive change. But other than an upbeat folk song to accompany the closing credits, little evidence of progress can be found.

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From the November 2019 issue of Planning Magazine.

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“Owned: A Tale of Two Americas” (2019)

See Planning Magazine for our take on “Owned: A Tale of Two Americas,” the new documentary by Giorgio Angelini. The film explores the current housing crisis — and the long history of inequality and racism that led us here.

Importantly, the film shows that while the 1960s’ civil rights legislation was meant to address these problems, enforcement has never been strong, and racial disparities in ownership and wealth, once established, have persisted.

The film is showing around the country in limited-theatrical release and available for streaming on iTunes and other platforms.

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