If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise
a film directed by Spike Lee
HBO Home Video, two DVDs, $24.98 (on sale April 19)
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
a film directed by Spike Lee
HBO Home Video, three DVDs, $19.98
Race
a film directed by Katherine Cecil
Information available at www.racethedocumentary.com.
Trouble the Water
a film directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
Zeitgeist, DVD, $29.99
Spike Lee’s latest long documentary film about New Orleans, If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, which aired on HBO last summer, begins with a set piece on the outburst of ecstasy occasioned by the Saints winning the 2010 Super Bowl. Louisiana is football-mad and Saints fans were being redeemed after decades of suffering through losing seasons, but there was a special intensity to the celebration because, plausibly, it could have marked the beginning of the post–Hurricane Katrina era in New Orleans—the moment when rebirth rather than tragedy became the reigning local metaphor.
