Search - The Axe in the Attic on DVD

Powerful and Groundbreaking

B. Burger | New York, NY USA | 01/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There have been many documentaries on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and rightly so. How can this national tragedy, which even now is being continued with families still awaiting trailers and new homes years after they were evacuated from New Orleans, be ignored or removed from the spotlight? Each documentary I have seen comes from a different perspective, but all focus on the struggles that the residents of New Orleans have suffered, the fight they are still undertaking, and the continual failing of the government to help its people. THE AXE IN THE ATTIC takes new steps in both telling the stories of Hurricane Katrina, and documentary filmmaking itself. The directors, Ed Pincus and Lucia Small, on their roadtrip down South, decide to take an active part in their own film. The story, which focuses on the inhabitants of New Orleans, many of whom have been removed to foreign parts of the country, is in large part told from the voices of the filmmakers. They reflect on their findings, their preconceived ideas, and what they discover as they move further south towards New Orleans, mixing the voices of those who witnessed the tragedy of Katrina from afar with those who lived through it. I have read reviews that criticize the choice of Pincus and Small to feature themselves in their own documentary, calling them self-involved. However, they are anything but. Their decision is to remove themselves from the passive position behind the camera and interact with their subjects, humanizing the process of filmmaking. Because of their decision, we get to know the directors as well as the interviewees, and their experiences become all the more vivid. These moving and entertaining interviews are interspersed with hauntingly desolate footage of New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward, reminding us that Katrina is not over - New Orleans is still rebuilding and its people still resettling. In the end, THE AXE IN THE ATTIC conveys a powerful, unforgettable, and humanizing portrait of a national tragedy that must not be forgotten. And it is one of the most moving accounts of Hurricane Katrina that I have seen. See this movie."