‘Katrina Babies,’a documentary on the children caught in the storm

By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer

Local filmmaker Edward Buckles Jr. was 13 years old when Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failures devastated New Orleans. In 2012, Buckles was in college and wondered how the other children of the Katrina era were doing and why there seemed to be little to no curiosity about how they were doing. Three years later, he began filming interviews with Katrina survivors for what would become “Katrina Babies.”

The film, which debuted on HBO on August 24 and is now streaming on HBO Max, interviews a variety of people who were children when Hurricane Katrina unleashed its wrath upon the Crescent City. Buckles found many similarities among his interview subjects, namely, how little interest adults seemed to show in their mental health.

“When I first started this project, I didn’t realize that there was this whole community of children who had never been asked how they were doing,” Buckles said.

The now-30-year-old Buckles’ immediate family was fortunate enough to evacuate the city to a hurricane shelter outside of New Orleans. But even though he was never stranded on a rooftop or in the Superdome, what he experienced was still a trauma. His young life was completely uprooted and he saw images on TV of his hometown completely under water. He also had family members who had remained in New Orleans.

“I thought I was okay, I thought I was good compared to people who didn’t evacuate,” Buckles said.

The filmmaker added that a common thread in the Black community is for people to underplay or dismiss their own trauma or pain because they know of other people who have it worse.

“We discredit and suppress our trauma because it’s not as bad as someone else’s trauma,” Buckles said. “But…trauma is trauma.”

Buckles and his story is featured in the documentary as well. He did not plan in that way initially, but when he broke down in tears after completing an interview, he realized he had not fully processed his own trauma. So he spent another year interviewing his own family members and compiling footage to add his own story into the mix.

The story of hidden trauma among children is a relevant one today as the world has endured over two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, children suffered from school closures and the cancellation of activities. Children in underprivileged neighborhoods also saw youth centers closed because of COVID. And while Katrina was a single awful event whose repercussions were felt for years, the pandemic was something that people had to deal with on a daily basis for years. Buckles feels people should be preparing these children now on how to cope with trauma from the pandemic whenever it arises for them. Professional help should be available to children.

“I am hopeful we can get in front of it if we just talk to the kids,” Buckles said. “Simply talking about trauma can bring healing.”

It’s important to address the trauma early so it doesn’t fester, Buckles said. One of the main thrusts of “Katrina Babies” is the violence that occurs in New Orleans now can be traced in part to the trauma endured by children during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

“That violence is a product of all the anger, the anxiety, all the sadness that built up over time,” Buckles said.

This article originally published in the August 29, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.