Monday, November 12, 2012 at 3:38PM Kimberly Rivers Roberts, the Woman Behind Trouble the Water
By Lolis Eric Elie
'Trouble the Water' received an Academy Award nomination for its incredible, real time depiction of the federal levee failures of 2005. In the hours leading up to Hurricane Katrina, Kimberly Rivers Roberts, the subject of the film, interviewed her neighbors as they prepared, or didn't prepare, for the approaching storm. Though she has no training as a journalist or filmmaker, Roberts raised many of the questions and captured many of the images that a more seasoned journalist would have chosen to depict. During the storm, she kept her camera rolling as she and her husband, Scott, struggled to survive the winds and rains. Working with filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, Roberts' video footage became one part of a larger story of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. During the festivities, Roberts, then pregnant, gave birth to her daughter Skyy.