Film Review: ‘Flood Streets’ Paints Enlightening Portrait of New Orleans

Submitted by mattmovieman on September 19, 2011 - 6:31am

CHICAGO – With their town ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and their neighborhood under government-ordered quarantine, one New Orleans couple decided to combine their artistic strengths into one cohesive project. Their goal was to portray their beloved city in a way that was strikingly different from the representation popularized by HBO’s “Treme.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The result is “Flood Streets,” a small gem of a film that captures a period fifteen months after the catastrophe where life is in a state of temporary flux. Screenwriter Helen Krieger structures her script as a series of vignettes loosely based off her own short stories, which were directly inspired by her experiences as a real estate agent surveying the post-flood housing market.

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Flood Streets” in our reviews section.

Krieger’s husband, director/co-star Joseph Meissner, proves to be her ideal collaborator. Together, they have staged an enduring portrait of a broken city where idealists cycle through the ruins and galvanized inhabitants attempt to pick up the pieces. Yet “Streets” is the complete opposite of a mournful dirge. It is a vibrant microcosm of New Orleans’ melting pot and a celebration of its ever-evolving culture. The wealth of diverse musicians contributing their own tuneful textures throughout the picture makes one occasionally wish that the film simply abandoned its plot altogether in favor of nonstop musical numbers. Show-stoppers range from the Irish-Cajun alternative rhythms of the Zydepunks and the Russian punk rock of Debauche to the exuberant soundscapes of the Panorama and Preservation Hall jazz bands. Yet perhaps the most memorable music comes courtesy of Becky Stark, an underground folk icon whose lovely lilting voice delivers melodic streams of consciousness that seem to be jutting out of her soul (such as when she finds herself lost on a road devoid of street signs). Like Krieger, Stark’s character is a real estate agent whose compassion for devastated citizens clinging to their doomed homes naturally causes her to have a crisis of conscience. Stark has a wonderfully engaging screen presence, and the quiet strength of her voice is emblematic of the entire production.

‘Flood Streets’ stars Becky Stark, Joseph Meissner, Melissa Hall, Ursaline Bryant, Ava Santana, Rachel Dupard, Alma Maleckar and Harry Shearer. It was written by Helen Krieger and directed by Joseph Meissner. It screens Sept. 19 at the Naperville Independent Film Festival. It is not rated.

Continue reading for Matt Fagerholm’s full “Flood Streets” review.