USA: The first film about the 2003 power blackout in New York City, premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival

The popular view of the power blackout in New York in August 2003, was the coming together of a city that less than two years ago had been emotionally devastated by the World Trade Center attacks on September 11. That picture included the portrait of New Yorkers having neighborhood parties in the darkness and taking out time to chat with neighborhood by candlelight. However, the first film on the impact of the power outage in New York City, "Blackout", which premiered recently at the Tribeca Film Festival, presents a very different picture. It portrays instead the gritty Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and specifically Browser Ave.. Just two blocks from the infamous Hallsboro housing projects, the people of Browser Avenue saw violence and disorder prevailed once the blackout struck, with people from the block turning against one another. The film has written and directed by Jerry Lamothe, an independent New York City filmmaker, and follows a range of fictional characters from the Brooklyn neighborhood and what they see and what happens to them during the blackout. The cast includes actors like Jeffrey Wright, Zoe Saldana and Melvin Van Peebles. Lamothe believes that his film presents the reality of a specific neighborhood that is in complete contrast with people's general perception of how things went in the city on the day of the blackout. He sees the mayhem of those two days in August as a sort of prelude to what was later to happen in New Orleans when it was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "One of the key points is definitely how this story is in complete contrast or contradiction to the public perception of how things went in general in this city. They say statistically speaking overall crime was down in compared to the previous year that same exact day in time, however, in that specific area neighborhood, it was like a tale of two cities. So, that was one of the stories I wanted to convey and also in a eerie kind of way, it was almost like a prelude to Katrina, although not as drastic, not in the same level of course, but just to show you how quickly, how easily things could fall apart and how as man, once things fall apart, there's just a ripple effect that occurs and becomes sort of a survival of the fittest, every man for himself mentality," said Lamothe. The film was actually shot in the same neighborhood where the story is based, with the help of people who live and work there. Actress Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Fatima, a head strong borderline feminist who is the local poet and activist, also experienced the blackout in the city, but says her experience of it was very different from what is presented in the film. She said that while filming in the same area as in Lamothe's plot, she was able to understand the tension that might have existed during the blackout. "There are certain neighborhoods that we sort of in life kind of stay away from and so when Jerry describes it as a sort of forgotten neighborhood, I think the reason people don't feel as comfortable there is because life is very real, it's very gritty, it's very about survival on a daily basis, so you feel that kind of tension. And it's not like somebody's going to walk up and punch you in the neck, you know what I mean, but the tension of people on a day to day struggle who are really trying to get by, in a very visceral and real way, you can really feel that on that block. You can really feel what that was about," said Watson. Lamothe's belief is that when power was restored in the city, officials like the New York City Mayor dismissed the hours of the blackout as a minor setback which resulted in very few crimes. But the director feels that was in clear contradiction to what happened in a section of East Flatbush. Lamothe believes the violence and looting that took place in this area exhibited the one side of the nature of man which is to take advantage of his own fellow man outside of normal conditions, in times of weakness and vulnerability. Through his film, Lamothe tries to present the ripple effect changes that can occur in one day, but change many lives forever. Lamothe said that soon after the blackout, his cinematographer pointed out an article in The New York Times on the violence in sections of Brooklyn, but that apart from an article or two, there was not much public knowledge of what happened there. He thinks this is partly because of the desire of the city to present a united front, especially when the power outage took place less than two years after 9/11. "There was an article about how there had been a series of lootings, and break-ins and burglaries, specifically in the East Flatbush area during the blackout, but those records weren't really put out there. And one of the key reasons that I feel in my opinion was also because remember 9/11 was still very close to home, post 9/11 world, it had only been two years, and we wanted to project the united city where we stand strong and we aid one another, and we do care about one another, contrary to popular belief," said Lamothe. Lamothe does not have distributors for the film as yet, but is hoping that exposure achieved during the screenings of the film at Tribeca, will help draw some interest.

ITN Source | May 9, 2007

Tags:. .struck. .devastated. .activist. .occurs. .filmmaker