If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise. 2010. USA. Directed by Spike Lee. DCP. 255 min.
Spike Lee’s massive follow-up to his monumental When the Levees Broke may start on a high note—the New Orleans Saints’ cathartic 2010 Super Bowl win—but its subject, by and large, is the grimmer reality. Almost immediately, the Gulf Coast is hit with another devastating crisis: the BP oil spill. The people persist, but their faith in institutions, from FEMA and the local government to the media, has completely corroded. Where When the Levees Broke gave us an on-the-ground view of citizens’ efforts to save their communities as the storm raged on, this sequel follows that energy as it carried forth in the long aftermath.
We see confrontations with city hall. We hear testimonies from the diaspora of Katrina refugees who, despite their incredible desire to return home, have remained unable to do so. Stunning scenes of activism and advocacy bump up against money and politics—same as it ever was. The consequences and long aftermath of the mass exodus of Black residents, especially, to places like Houston, has changed the demographic and political landscape of the Gulf Coast forever. The incursion of developers, the destruction of public housing, and the continued fight to save the city become Lee’s story, as—just as he did in the first film—he uses interviews with public figures and everyday people to braid together a narrative that resists neatness. As furious a political masterwork as its predecessor, If God Is Willing… is full to the brim with images not only of devastation and the eerie remains of the storm, but of hard-won hope for the future. Together with When the Levees Broke, this one of the most urgent American cinematic documents of the 21st century.