Independent America

What New Orleans Means

My last few days in New Orleans -- replete with successful test showings of "Rising from Ruins" and having to contend with Gustav -- have been quite instructive.

At first, I was concerned with how Gustav might change the Katrina narrative of the film.  The answer: they complement each other.  During the Q&A's after our screenings, I got a strong dose of this growing self-reliance in the Katrina Zone.  That folks don't trust big institutions (governments or companies) to save their bacon, and that they need to rely on their own independent judgment and resources to make crucial decisions.

Escape from New Orleans

LOUIS ARMSTRONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, New Orleans

I’ve spent the last 24 hours staying “connected” with New Orleans even as I plan my own departure.

The impending hurricane forced us to cancel our world premiere last night.  But we still had to “contingency” screenings – the latest one right after Mayor Ray Nagin’s press conference declaring Gustav to be the “mother of all storms.”

I noticed a starkly different “feel” to Thursday’s screening, compared to last night.  Thursday, “Katrina” was still the working premise, part of the city’s most obvious vocabulary.  Now Gustav may supplant it, and it’ll be interesting to see how I’ll have to modify my film to fit this potential new reality.

New film! New Orleans bound

Just wrapped "Independent America:Rising from Ruins" for our premiere in New Orleans this Saturday.  See press release here, or below the fold.  I'm heading for the airport tonight for my redeye to the city.  In the meantime, there's worrisome news about Hurricane Gustav's path...

Why I'm Keeping My SUV

We acquired our Tennessee-made/Japanese-designed Nissan Xterra while we were still living in Canada.  At the time, I was looking for the most appropriate film production crew vehicle that could also handle the mountains, snow and off-roads of British Columbia.  It had the space, the "utility" (four power outlets, tie downs, fold-flat seats), and the four-wheel drive necessary to fulfill this task.  In other words, the right tool for the job.  [This was prior to our assuming a "Local First" lifestyle, but as Michael Shuman has argued in the "Small-Mart Revolution" "Buying American" via a globally-sourced GM or Ford is not quite as virtuous as buying local.]

Packed to the ceiling with gear, it was perfect for our two Independent America road trips -- and still more economical than Charles Kuralt's RV.

Recently -- probably like most North Americans -- I had to reassess our vehicle policy given gas prices and that we were now living in a more urban setting in Seattle.

I'm sticking with the SUV.

That's A Wrap! Filming in NOLA

This blog proved to be really helpful in building a grassroots audience for our first film.

But now that I'm busy running a digital media Master's program at the University of Washington, and managing its blog as well, my bandwidth has seriously narrowed.

Still, I found great joy in microblogging about my time in New Orleans last week, as I wrapped up shooting "Rising from Ruins."  Thanks to Twitter, I could post a 140-character (or less) comment to my account, which would also get cross-posted to this blog (see the Twitter feed in the top right hand corner) and my Facebook page.  And most of the time, I did it via my Nokia E61i phone, even from a shrimping boat off of the coast of Lousiana.

So to recap, here's what I did over the last six days (most recent first):

NY Times: slow progress in New Orleans

Yesterday the New York Times published this story: "Big Plans Are Slow to Bear Fruit in New Orleans". The article focuses on the big picture of New Orleans by taking a high-level view of the situation of the city.

As Hanson has witnessed, indeed the recovery is quite uneven in New Orleans (specially in the lower ninth ward). However, the article doesn't quite get into is the city doing to remedy this a,d whether those measure are the right strategy. The Times featured Edward Blakely as the main figure in the reconstruction -- to the point of questioning the role of Mayor Nagin. Hanson interviewed Blakely while he was on his bike tour (good thing Hanson likes to bike as well!). I think this will provide some more insight into an incredibly accredited man whose been bestowed with such immense responsibility -- and probably his biggest challenge.

Second Life for Chains

The Lower Ninth Ward is New Orleans’ poster child for Katrina’s tragic legacy.  Much of the population has yet to return, it reminds me of many of the war zones I’ve covered in my career as a journalist.

There are signs of life, as we discovered with the brave entrepreneurs who have decided to open the odd gas station or diner.  Meanwhile, every single corporate chain that we could see: from Popeye’s to KFC is shuttered, and sold.

Next to Holmes One Stop restaurant, the Walgreen’s has abandoned all hope.  The corporate logo has been removed, leaving behind a shadow of its imprint upon the facade.  An Anglican church will soon take over the building.  Yet it preserves the community landmark, by renaming the new facility as “Walgreens Sanctuary.”

EVENT: Why Local Business Matters

Please join us for a workshop conducted by co-founder and co-director of the American Independent Business Alliance (www.amiba.net), Jeff Milchen, on Monday, March 31 from 6 - 8 pm at Kirschman Hall Room 112, on UNO's Lakefront Campus (see map: http://www.uno.edu/university/maps/maincamp.asp).

The workshop will focus on the vital importance of local ownership and community-based business toward a healthy and self-determined community. 

This workshop will be filmed as part of "Independent America:  Rising from Ruins," a documentary focused on New Orleans' small businesses and their role in New Orleans' recovery.  The film is a sequel to the 2005 film "Independent America" (www.independentamerica.net).

NOLA population: Good or Bad news?

Too many years dealing with stats in marketing have made me keenly aware that numbers can be valued differently depending on the context. It’s the old half-empty/half-full dilemma.

Last night, I got a few Google alerts with exalting headlines like: “Population rebounds in storm-hit New Orleans: census” (Reuters). This immediately seemed in conflict with my initial research that indicated that New Orleans was still regaining population but at a much slower pace.

This morning, as I feared, I had a voicemail from Hanson asking me to look into it. I couldn’t hear all the details of his VM (bad connection), but it was clear that he needed me to get the right picture with the state of the population in New Orleans.

So what IS the right picture?

On the road again...

Five years ago, I was covering the start of the Iraq war from the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln for NBC.

Three years ago, I was preparing for the lonely expedition my wife Heather and I would take to cover what we thought was a growing insurgency against corporate chain retail in the United States.  This trip was to become the documentary, Independent America.

This week, I presented the changing face of digital media to the entire communications staff at the Gates Foundation here in Seattle, thanks to my new position at the University of Washington.  But I've yet to truly learn my lesson, as I'm hitting the road in a few hours, once again, to do another Independent America film.  And that insurgency has becoming a raging national movement.