Review: Renaissance Village

Renaissance Village

OPENING: 01/09/2009

STUDIO: NTI Upstream

TRAILER:

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge
First there was the storm. Then there was the renaissance.

The Case
By turns professionally well-informed and informally engaging, Gabe Chasnoff’s Renaissance Village is an interesting portrait of life in a certain part of post-Katrina Louisiana. In the wake of Katrina’s devastation, many families were placed in trailers by FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). The largest site was Renaissance Village, located in Baker, Louisiana. 3,000 people were placed in trailers in Renaissance Village and given 18 months to find a new place to live before federal funding was cut off. Fast forward 18 months, and 1700 people are still living in Renaissance Village. Funding is extended, while people continue to try and figure out what to do with their lives.

Sadly, time and money aren’t the only factors here. The trailers are presenting a severe health risk. An extremely high level of formaldehyde has been discovered, making many people sick and even killing some. The situation quickly becomes both a major news story and an important legal issue. A Texas law firm attempts to hold trailer manufacturers responsible for knowingly producing toxic living facilities, putting an increasing amount of pressure on FEMA and the government to shut down Renaissance Village and other trailer parks created to house victims of Katrina. As these battles rage on a national scale, the victims continue to suffer. Many have nowhere to go and some would rather face the health risks posed by the formaldehyde than give up their housing.

I was particularly intrigued by how well the film works as both an informational document and as a slice-of-life character study. Renaissance Village offers an educational and well-paced examination of the interaction between FEMA and the citizens of the trailer park, while benefitting a great deal from the authoritative narration of Wendell Pierce (HBO’s The Wire). This large-scale narrative serves as the structure for the film and holds everything together, creating plenty of well-contained gaps for Chasnoff to fill through intimate interviews with a variety of colorful individuals.

The people populating Renaissance Village are well-selected. Some are intelligent, others a bit clueless, but all are compelling and sympathetic. The most vocal is Wilbert Ross, the passionate president of Renaissance Village. He obviously has deep levels of compassion for all of the struggling residents in the trailer park, and dedicates much of his time to semi-successful efforts in bringing everyone together to achieve common goals. We also meet Herbert, aka “The Candyman,” who is thrown out of the trailer park for setting up a store that sold candy and snacks to residents. One of the film’s most powerful moments comes from a woman named Thelma, who quietly recalls a terrifying memory of violent racism that she witnessed during her childhood. We quickly begin to care about these people.

Obviously, the scales are tilted in favor of the people, as opposed to FEMA and government officials. However, the film doesn’t attempt to oversimplify anything. There are instances when people are causing their own problems, and others in which FEMA’s big mistakes are simply the result of mismanaged good intentions. Thankfully, the film lets people on both sides speak for themselves. When Pierce steps in to narrate, it’s only to provide information and facts, not to sermonize. The result is a solid documentary that manages to avoid many of the obvious pitfalls of the genre.

Despite a few moments that seem to meander just a little, Renaissance Village is recommended viewing, and achieves the considerable feat of being politically thought-provoking while retaining a notable measure of objectivity.

The Verdict
8/10

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