Add the devastation of one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit U.S. soil and you have a smack-to-the-face kind of film that should sting even the most cold-hearted of cynics.

Three weeks after the nation watched in horror the massive destruction of property documented on the TV news, Brooklyn-based filmmakers Ashley Sabin and David Redmon returned to New Orleans to finish filming a character sketch on Ms. Pearl, a colorful Upper 9th Ward resident Redmon had met making his first film Mardi Gras: Made In China.

The film project takes an unexpected turn when, as we see unfold, Ms. Pearl walks into Washington Square Park and offers 14 displaced people a place to live in her backyard.

Kamp Katrina is born.

Hopeful and determined to rebuild the city they love, Ms. Pearl and her husband David Cross create a list of rules -- no getting drunk, no violence, etc. -- and put their backyard residents to work on small construction jobs.

At first, the tent city residents appear filled with hope and the residents grateful for the generosity of Ms. Pearl and David. Expectant mother Kelley talks of the hope for rebirth her temporary home and the child she carries bring.

Seeing all that the tent-city residents have been through, it's hard not to root for them. Kamp Katrina is a refuge and a community for broken people who have lost everything. It represents a chance to start over and rebuild a community.

But anything resembling utopia unravels quickly.

The first blow comes when Washington Square Park is shut down by the city, cutting Kamp Katrina and hundreds of other displaced people off from much-needed aid.

As tensions begin to flair, the camp quickly becomes as unpredictably unraveled as Charles, a mentally ill man who claims to have an intimate relationship with Joan of Arc and spends much of his day trying to sweep demons away with a broom.

While bare necessities are hard to come by, substances to numb the pain are not far away. Dealers sell across the street from the tent-city and there's a "free beer store" -- loose bottles piled up at the curb -- a few blocks away.

Kelley, a recovering crack addict eventually returns to her old ways and her husband Doug's alcohol abuse fuels violence. Petty thievery and other external pressures crush the hope that was seemingly so plentiful when Ms. Pearl generously opened up the makeshift shelter.

Amidst the brokenness and the lingering smell of death -- at times the chaos on screen is difficult enough to stomach -- Ms. Pearl and David manage to carry on even while their experiment in human kindness and generosity starts to look more Lord of the Flies than Alice's Restaurant.

Still, Ms. Pearl's unique costumes, colorful personality and Mardi Gras-every-day attitude shines through even as she juggles responsibilities of playing landlord, therapist, drug counselor, wife and mother.

Her spirit is what gives an otherwise downer of film a ray of hope. Her strength in times of turmoil and her support for people whose chance of survival seems somewhat in doubt as the film closes -- Kelley and Doug split and their son is born an addict -- is honestly inspiring.

Like a good documentary film should, Kamp Katrina leaves the careful viewer uncomfortable, wrestling with the themes and reflecting on characters who speak to the human experience of grief, pain and loss for days. To say that this film puts a human touch on an event already covered in countless media forms would be a painful understatement.

posted [09.12.07]