MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This paper uses Hurricane Katrina as a lens through which to view a selection of natural disaster films and the racial politics therein. Hurricane Katrina is where in real life the questions of racial politics, questions of governments relationships to their citizens, and natural disasters all combined into a catastrophe that not only was indicative of the history of racism and White Supremacy that came before it, but had lasting repercussions. This project focuses on six films; three that were made and released before Hurricane Katrina (2005) and three that were made and released after. Through a close reading of these films, this project will track changes in racial politics; especially in the relationships between Black characters and government institutions within the film. This project will also use the Spike Lee documentary “When the Levees Broke” to compare and contrast the realities of the films with that of the real-life disaster and its aftermath. Some questions this project hopes to answer include: How are natural disaster films different before and after Hurricane Katrina? Are there any identifiable trends in these films? If so, what are they and how do they compare to events that occurred during the real-life disaster? What is different about the relationships between the Black characters and the government institutions within the films? I will also use film and critical race theory to understand and analyze the racial politics and stereotypes of the film compared to those perpetuated by media in real-life.