A few months after Hurricane Katrina, documentarians Ed Pincus and Lucia Small went on a road trip though the South to trace the stories of Americans who had lost not just their homes but also their trust in the government in the storm. Along with heartbreaking stories of FEMA trailers, red tape, grief and loss, they also filmed their own reactions to the devastation.
Full of good intentions but hampered by a code of ethics ill-equipped to handle the complicated issues they face, the filmmakers squabble over their personal involvement. Would it be acceptable to hand their "subjects" ten bucks for the bus? Pincus and Small don't know. Anti-Michael-Moores who are not afraid to cry, fight, or throw up their hands in front of the camera, they display admirable honesty -- but that doesn't make The Axe in the Attic a satisfying documentary.
The filmmakers connection to Southern culture in general and New Orleans specifically is tenuous at best, and the film documents first on foremost the limits of their brand of liberalism. To truly understand all that was lost during and after Katrina, see Spike Lee's incendiary When the Levee's Broke.
