Educational Media Reviews Online

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast with a vengeance on Monday, August 29, 2005, leaving death and destruction in its path, forcing survivors to struggle for their lives. Although the Mississippi coast received as much of a wallop from Katrina, New Orleans took center stage as the drama unfolded. News articles, television reports and radio addresses have been impossible to miss, but for those of us fortunate enough to escape the tragedies of Katrina, it is difficult to put ourselves in the survivors’ shoes. Robert, Mary, & Katrina, takes us as close to those experiences as humanly possible.

The focus of Robert, Mary & Katrina centers on an elderly African-American couple that are parents of 6, grandparents of 11, and great-grandparents of another 6. Robert Manuel is a native of New Orleans while his beloved wife, Mary, has always been a resident of Louisiana. In true form of an oral history, Robert and Mary’s story of struggle and survival from the wrath of Katrina grips the audience’s emotions and takes them on a rollercoaster journey of fear, shock, laughter, sadness, pride, despair, and hope. Through their animated, yet horrific, memories of the day the levees broke, witnesses to Robert and Mary’s interview can almost place themselves in the terrifying situation that this family had to endure. As the water rose, survival became the ultimate challenge. Once saved by the “bad boys of the neighborhood” and brought to safety on a nearby overpass, the battle was not over. Much like the “storm that has a tendency to divide this country,” the Manuel family was divided as they were each taken to separate shelters, and eventually, to different parts of the country. The stories this couple recount will grab you instantly, and the raw, unfettered personality they inject in their storytelling will have you believing that you’ve known this couple for years.

Robert, Mary & Katrina runs for 42 minutes and the entire video consists of Robert and Mary sitting next to each other – very basic cinematography which is extremely powerful. It is not the images that are important here, but the stories told as the tragedy of Katrina and her victims unravels. Robert and Mary take their audience, which will ultimately include generations to come, into their world while they laugh, cry and share memories, all the while interrupting each other as one would expect a loving couple of this age to do.