What does it mean to be exiled in your own country? That’s the question posed by The Axe in the Attic, a raw and honest look at a country that forgot a segment of it’s population in their hour of need.
Self funded and definitely rough around the edges, it’s the raw honesty coupled with the emotional subject matter that make this such a compelling watch.
Film maker Lucia Small persuaded documentary maker Ed Pincus to come out of retirement and join her on a 60 day road trip from New England all the way down to New Orleans and the surrounding cities and towns to speak to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Talking to the survivors, many of them now living as refugees in different towns, or purpose built trailer parks, or in tents on the foundations of their former homes, Lucia and Ed discover a myriad of different stories with one common thread – the pain and suffering of not being able to go home, to go back to their jobs, to earn a living. Forcibly made out to be bludgers, yet fighting tooth and nail with bureaucracy to get even a dime, or permission to clean up their home and start rebuilding.
And all of this, everything you see on The Axe in the Attic begins six months after Katrina. When the film making duo arrive in some of the worst districts of New Orleans the devastation is immense. Despite having witnessed it no the news, the sheer enormity of the scale is breathtaking, and the fact that nothing seems to have been done is un-believable.
Conspiracy theories, anger, humour and a seemingly unshakable faith in God permeate the survivors. As horrible as their stories are, for the most part it seems that the people whom Katrina picked on were certainly a resilient bunch. And living then under the Bush administration they certainly had to be.
An eye opening, maddeningly emotional journey. FILMGUIDE rating: Reviewed by: Jonathan Read Release date: August 11th, 2010 Length (Minutes): 110 Languages: English Director: Pincus, Ed Studio: Triton
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