Filmmakers Statement

 

 filmmaker Farrah Hoffmire

I was invited to New Orleans after the hurricanes and floods by a friend who was earning a degree in social work from Tulane University. Cat Malovic invited me to make a short documentary about student efforts to set up a refugee camp in Baton Rouge for those affected by the storm.

By the time I arrived, New Orleans had just opened up and people were returning to the city. Suddenly, I was thrown into another story. I followed leads from kind people who led serendipitously to meeting more people and I started gathering footage without really knowing what type of story would emerge.

For every story I was able to tell in these vignettes there are many more I could not. Some of those stories may never be told and some hopefully can work their way into later installments of this project.

What struck me in those first days after the storm was that the spirit of grassroots activism and mutual aid was the strongest presence in the city. Everything else was a ghost of itself. I was stunned and inspired to find returning residents (who in some cases had lost everything) pitching in to help others, as well as people from all over the world who dropped their lives to come to New Orleans.

In many cases these people had attempted to navigate the official charity and aid groups to a fruitless and bureaucratic end. Their strong desire to make a tangible difference had led them to the types of organizations I feature in my film. They seemed to be providing a more earnest form of healing and support.

As I journal the events in New Orleans I continue to witness true solidarity and community care. Obviously, it is great to find these stories of inspiration. But it is hard not to also notice the grotesque and greedy. For the two truly do coexist. New Orleans continues to teach me this on so many levels. I hope Falling Together in New Orleans can capture individual stories in a way that provides insight and some sense of perspective for both.

I obviously do not have answers to the many complex problems, but I am paying attention and trying to see things that might otherwise be missed. My goal with this project is to share my enthusiasm for the power of mutual aid, document the various re-building efforts and to explore the effects the storm has had on New Orleans' unique culture.

--Farrah