We were lucky to see one of two sold-out shows when actor/comedian/musician Harry Shearer brought to our fair city his excellent feature documentary about engineering and political malfeasance in New Orleans which makes a case that the disaster following Hurricane Katrina was anything but natural. Interviewing people who agree with him and others who don't, Shearer (probably best known as bassist Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, NPR's Le Show, and his work on 484 episodes of The Simpsons, he was also wonderful in the Christopher Guest oeuvre: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006), as well as others of his 146 credits, which include Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) when he was 10, and the pilot of Leave it to Beaver (1957)--he and his parents decided he should not continue (as Eddie Haskell!) so he could have a normal childhood) plays it serious here as director/writer/narrator, except for four words printed at the end of the credits and a few questions posed here and there by John Goodman.
Jazz pianist David Torkanowsky is credited with the music and, once again, I can't find tracks for you, but he plays in this video in which Shearer asks him about his experiences during the disaster. You may also like to see this interview with the editor Tom Roche. Shearer lives part-time in New Orleans and loves his adopted city but was willing to make this tour to promote his movie and do Q&A here, there, and everywhere. This is not on netflix's radar, probably because it doesn't have a real Hollywood distributor. I imagine it will be available on iTunes or something of the sort. For more info, see the official website.
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