Heartbreaking and Inspirational
An American Opera Records New Orleans Tragedy

Two years after hurricane Katrina, America is still asking questions about the federal response to the disaster that devastated New Orleans. In the midst of such destruction, there is no worst moment, no definitive tragedy. Yet, there were those who sought to help in the eye of the storm of chaos and controversy. In the documentary An American Opera, director Tom McPhee focuses on the abandoned and missing animals of New Orleans in an attempt to understand what went wrong.

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Lamonte Chenevert is reunited with his beloved Cleo at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, Louisiana, in the documentary An American Opera. (Cave Studio, 2007)
Directed by: Tom McPhee

Rated Not Rated
Running time: 91 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 10 out of 10.

McPhee went to Louisiana not knowing how he would help, just knowing he needed to help somehow. He volunteered at at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center and found himself spending the next four days photographing thousands of pets rescued from flooded New Orleans. That overwhelming pet rescue effort became a need to document the tragedy as it unfolded.

This film is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Watching so many people attempt to make a difference in the midst of chaos is astounding. While the federal response to the disaster may have been lacking, the human response was immediate.

It is also frustrating, as the desire to make a difference is thwarted time and again by government bureaucracy. People who arrived with no agenda other than to lend a hand were told to leave problems to the federal agencies. Even when trying to work with the federal and local authorities, people often met with resistance. Through it all, McPhee guides us with a skeptical eye, making the audience wonder what else could have been done.

Scenes describing animal cruelty are the hardest to watch, but made more powerful by McPhee's expert camera work that combines images of the aftermath with flashes of animal bodies. Still, it is not easy to hear stories of animals murdered in cold blood by the police. It is difficult to watch video of a happy dog knowing that he would be killed moments later.

Perhaps the biggest legacy this film will leave is the need to make a difference it imparts to those who view it. As I watched the film with my wife, we asked ourselves why we hadn't gone to help in New Orleans and what we could have done. More importantly, it galvanized us to take a look at our own community to see what differences we could make closer to home.

In An American Opera, McPhee uses the plight of the animals to examine the larger picture of government bureaucracy, federal mismanagement, and the hope that good people bring to horrible situations. We can only hope to learn from such a disaster so that procedures are put in place to prevent tragedy from striking again.