Belly of the Basin
A Sisters’ Eye on Media Production
A Documentary by Roxana Walker-Canton and Tina Morton
Bombarded with sensationalized media coverage of Hurricane Katrina for months after the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast, audiences around the world watched as the media portrayed demoralizing images of African Americans “looting” in the midst of the chaos. As a result, the media focused on the criminalization of African American survival as opposed to focusing on the overwhelming psychological and physical displacement and dislocation that the hurricane created for the black, indigenous, and poor communities affected by the hurricane and flood. Belly of the Basin asks New Orleans to tell its story through the voices of its ordinary residents. One woman says that they were left to die like rats. One man says that no one cares about the little man. One child says that she’s afraid that she will never be as happy as she used to be. Since the hurricane, much has been said about the destruction of homes and businesses. But for the survivors, the emotional and psychological loss of “home” has been the most difficult to handle. Through individual stories of survivors and volunteers of grassroots organizations Belly of the Basin poses questions about the value of human life in relationship to race, class, and politics.
Running Time: 90 minutes
Screening & Discussion with the Filmmakers
For more information contact:
Roxana Walker-Canton
(860) 705-2043
Short Biographies for the Filmmakers
Roxana Walker-Canton is an independent filmmaker and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Gender & Women’s Studies at Connecticut College. Her work focuses on the politics of space, place, and land as they relate to African American history and culture. Recent works include Ghetto Cotton Dreaming, a narrative about a Northern urban African American male making a new life for himself in rural Bulloch County, Georgia and Point of No Return, a short experimental video about the slave dungeons in Ghana. She has just completed Belly of the Basin, a social activist documentary about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on people of color in New Orleans, and she is in production for Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of a Community of Women, a documentary focusing on African American women in higher education. Roxana will be shooting an original screenplay titled Stroller this summer in Philadelphia. She is married and has three children.
Tina Morton is a media activist deeply committed to facilitating members of community groups in telling their own stories. Her work aurally and visually shares the perspectives of marginalized people, enabling them to be seen and heard in their own image and voice. Her own work started when she took classes at Scribe Video Center over a decade ago. In 2001, she completed a community history documentary entitled Severed Souls, a 13-year personal journey to chronicle community memory of the execution of Corrine Sykes, a 20-year-old North Philadelphia resident wrongly executed for murder and the first African American woman to be legally executed in PA. In 2005, she facilitated a South Philadelphia community group to help create The Taking of South Central...Philadelphia, a documentary focusing on problems of gentrification affecting so many communities. Currently, Tina is currently working on Belly of the Basin, chronicling the people of New Orleans' voices, voices not drowned out by Katrina but by political red tape. This documentary features people's stories of survival and struggle. The documentary will serve as a movement-building tool by inspiring people to do not just view by getting involved in the rebuilding of New Orleans and other Gulf Coast regional cities affected by Katrina. Her work is that of a video oral historian, documenting community struggles. Tina is an Assistant Professor of Radio Television & Film at Howard University.