Soul Savers in The Big Easy
From Stephen Grant
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Producers: Stephen Grant
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Review of Soul Savers in The Big EasyThis is the story of the Soul Savers' recollections of the days during and after Hurricane Katrina. The three men speaking have incredibly compelling stories. The interview is nicely mixed and makes you want to listen despite being a half hour long with no narration and no natural sound. Music adds to the piece nicely. I think the news reports at the beginning and ending are meant to give the piece context. But I would have loved it to be fleshed out with natural sound and really use the power of audio to add to the voices. |
Timing and Cues
Soul Savers in The Big Easy opens and closes with a series of overlapping breaking news reports that fade in and out; the first reports from August/September, immediately following Katrina. The closing reports, as recent as February. These bookend the commentary from the Soul Patrol members.
Suggested Lead-in:
Six months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast States of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, the city of New Orleans continues to make dramatic news headlines. Reports coming out of New Orleans highlight the struggles and challenges the people of New Orleans face - evacuees relocated across the country are still unable to return home - insurance companies are failing to pay claims to the area's residents - more than 200 dead are still unidentified and the top-down failures of government have raised serious concerns across the nation. All these are familiar stories, but one story we don't hear much about are those of the New Orleans residents, who themselves remained behind to rescue those stranded by the floodwaters in Katrina's aftermath.
Next, we hear the personal accounts of three courageous men who lived in the city's seventh ward. They chose to stay behind to bring stranded victims to safety. This group became known as the Soul Patrol. Their story begins with a replay of some of the breaking news reports in the days following Katrina.
Some useful information for a Lead-out:
And, where are they today?
Rick Mathieu returned to New Orleans for good last November staying on top of a still very fluid situation down there. He is currently experiencing difficulties with his insurance company.
Jadell Beard is still with the woman he met not to long after his relocation to Omaha, Nebraska. They just moved into a suburban house with a white picket fence.
And, Earl Barthe has been going back and forth between Omaha, Nebraska and New Orleans were he is helping to rebuild his community in the seventh ward.
And look for:
Camp Epiphany, a book written by Michael Woods, which chronicles the Soul Patrol's 12-day mission to rescue their neighbors and highlights who the first and last responders were in New Orleans; the book is due out this spring.
Or: visit www.afromation.com, follow the link to the New Orleans Aftermath Page, where you will find out more about Rick, Earl & Jadell.
Pronouncers: Rick Mathieu (Matthew),
Earl Barthe (BARthay), Jadell (Jaydell) Beard
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Additional Information
- Produced: Feb 01, 2006
- Added to PRX: Mar 23, 2006
- This piece is in English
andrew walsh
Posted on September 01, 2006 at 07:34 AM | Permalink
Review of Soul Savers in The Big Easy
This is the exact type of thoughtful half-hour piece we were hoping to find when we decided to run a Katrina show. It's well produced and gripping. The three men interviewed are great story tellers, and their conversation is nicely woven together without narration. The only small criticism I have is that the piece takes a very different turn about 2/3 of the way through, when all the action ends and the criticism/analysis begins. The mens' comments about the way the Katrina situation was handled and their general complaints about the administration are important to hear, but it begins to wear on the listener after a while, making the beginning of this documentary much stronger than the end. I wonder if those big-picture observations at the end of this piece could have been sprinkled throughout the entire half-hour more evenly to keep the listener more engaged to the end.
Having said all that, I think this is a really excellent production, and I was very happy to find it. It's a story that should be heard, and it's told here very well through a producer who knew what he was doing.