Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke'

Katrina film will re-run tonight

The entire, four-hour documentary will run Tuesday night, August 29, starting at 7 pm Central Time (8 pm Eastern) on HBO. If you can't watch, be sure to record it. After the 29th, it can also be viewed through HBO-on-Demand.

NOLA Times-Picayune: LeBlanc 'blunt but frequently hilarious'

Spike sounds off: The critic had his say, now the filmmaker gets his.

Dave Walker, New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 22, 2006 writes a follow-up to his orginal review and includes this anecdote:

Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, one of the 100-plus witnesses interviewed by Lee, has been cited in many reviews as one of Levees' stars.

LeBlanc, a former eastern New Orleans resident Lee interviewed in her FEMA trailer, is blunt but frequently hilarious in recounting her storm story.

At Thursday's morning-after news conference, a reporter asked LeBlanc about her reaction to sudden stardom.

LeBlanc said she'd awoken that morning to her husband's request for breakfast.

"I'm like, 'I'm a star,' " she said. "He's like, 'Hell no, do what you do, fix breakfast.'

"I fixed his breakfast."

Alternet: LeBlanc 'salty and delightful'

Spike Lee's HBO doc about Hurricane Katrina is a haunting and expertly told story that shows how little our government truly cares about many of its citizens.

Sheerly Avni, Truthdig, August 22, 2006:

...Lee wisely turns that ear to the voices of the ravaged city as they spin colorful and dramatic accounts of their experiences before, during and after the storm: the salty and delightful Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, a wife and mother who compares the storm to the 50-foot woman of B-movies ripping the skin off her home, and then delights us with an account of her near throw-down with a cold U.S. servicewoman; Gina Montana, who describes the agony of seeing people "treated like cattle," and reminds us that before it was called The Big Easy, New Orleans was known as The Town That Care Forgot; and finally, Fred Johnson, obscene and on-point, with a snorted dismissal of George Bush and his advisers: "These fools, they don't even know four dogs got four assholes!"

Sydney, Australia: 'Profane..profound...highlight of the film'

Bush the villain of Katrina film

Bob Dart, Sydney Morning Herald, August 21, 2006:

Brown was among thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina at the world premiere of the four-hour film at the New Orleans Arena on Wednesday night.

One was Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, whose profane and sometimes profound commentary is a highlight of the film. "This was unnecessary," she said of the tragedy. "I hope everyone watches [the movie] and learns from it."

Photo: Phyllis Montana LeBlanc shows off her crew t-shirt at the premiere of the film 'When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,' a documentary about the impact of Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans August 16, 2006. LeBlanc, featured in the film, lost her home in the hurricane.

Newsweek: She's a 'classic Nawlins spitfire'

Spike's Katrina: After watching the city get ravaged by the storm, Lee spent a year filming a wrenching four-hour 'Requiem' for New Orleans.

Allison Samuels, Newsweek, August 21, 2006:

But the voice you'll remember best belongs to a 42-year-old woman named Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, a survivor from the city's obliterated Lower Ninth Ward and one of the rawest specimens of classic Nawlins spitfire you'll ever find. In Lee's devastating film, LeBlanc is a frequent, and frequently hilarious, presence, a fuming Greek chorus of one who still can't believe that, for nearly a week, her country left her and her neighbors for dead.

"There were two things I asked Spike when we first met," says LeBlanc, sitting in a lawn chair outside her government-issued trailer home in New Orleans—the one she finally received four months after applying for it. "First I asked him, 'Are you going to tell the whole story and make it clear that all black people aren't poor, ignorant looters?' And then I asked if I could cuss." She laughs. "When he said yes to both, I said, 'Hot damn, we've got a deal!'"

Kansas City Star: She's 'colorful...outspoken'

Spike Lee opens the floodgates: Katrina victims spill out their shock, anger, grief and defiance in HBO documentary.

Aaron Barnhart, Kansas City Star, August 20, 2006:

As the storm bears down on New Orleans, those who stayed behind realize they have gambled and lost. Recalling that night, Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, one of the more colorful of the roughly 100 subjects chosen by Lee for the film, recalls thinking, “What if this is actually God’s will for us to die?”

LeBlanc is first subjected to the terror of watching the floodwaters destroy everything around her, then the seemingly endless series of insults: the 911 calls unanswered, the journey on foot to an evacuation point, the plane ride to nowhere, the FEMA trailer and the interminable pleading for assistance that continues to this day.

But even with her family scattered across the country, LeBlanc is adamant: “Whether you try to drown me or I die naturally, I’m going to stay here till the end.”

Phyllis Montana LeBlanc is one of the more outspoken subjects featured in the new Spike Lee documentary “When the Levees Broke.”

Austin American-Statesman: 'Her influence throughout the film is haunting'

Spike Lee turns his lens on Katrina survivors

Dianne Hollaway, Austin American-Statesman, August 18, 2006

Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, one of the film's most impassioned voices, riffs on her pain, anger and determination to go home after barely escaping the Aug. 29, 2005, disaster. She is alternately poetic and profane. And her influence throughout the film is haunting.

Pittsburgh Courier: 'Impassioned...at times darkly comic'

Spike Lee documentary marks first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Pittsburgh Courier, August 17, 2006:

One of the film’s most memorable voices belongs to Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, a resident from the 9th Ward who escaped with her husband, mother, sister and nephew. LeBlanc’s impassioned, and at times darkly comic, account brings the horrific events into focus. After wading through water and mud, ignored by helicopter rescuers, LeBlanc finally reached Louis Armstrong Airport. Packed with fellow evacuees, and forced to stand for 15 hours surrounded by armed and uncaring personnel, LeBlanc suffered a breakdown.

Photos from New Orleans premiere

Phyllis, Spike Lee and others at the New Orleans premiere of "When the Levee Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts," August 17, 2006. [Photos by Skip Bolen/WireImage.com]




Sheila Nevins (President of HBO Documentary Films) and Phyllis.


Phyllis and Spike Lee (Director)

NOLA Times-Picayune: 'Secret weapon in the face of despair: humor'

The word other critics likely will use most to describe Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO is "wrenching." My word is "unfinished," even at four hours.

Dave Walker, New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 16, 2006:

Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, once of eastern New Orleans and now a FEMA trailer resident, is the personification of her city's eternal secret weapon in the face of despair: humor.

Recounting her survival year, she's profane and prosecutorial, as much of a thread throughout the movie as Terence Blanchard's deep-blue score.