OwnerBuilt
Author
Nina Zurier
Decades
2010s
Tags
Activism Community Natural Disasters
Video
Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the people of New Orleans slowly began to rebuild homes and lives while trying to process what their community had endured. Lawrence Andrews presents the theatrical retellings of related events by a local man referred to as Noel. The retelling of his memories is further influenced by the tragic police shooting of unarmed civilians who were crossing the Danziger Bridge six days after the hurricane. This incident left two people dead and four seriously injured. Says Andrews: “Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing aftermath destroyed Noel’s community. As he rebuilds, he evokes the past through the enlistment of his personal archives. His memories are complicated by the tragic events that occurred on the Danziger Bridge following the storm. The story that he tells about his neighborhood is affected by the story of innocent people gunned down while attempting to cross a bridge in search of safety, and for Noel their plight clarifies many things. An implied author performs Noel, who performs others, who themselves are performing. And in this manner a performative documentary comes into being.”
Lawrence Andrews graduated from SFAI in 1987 with a BFA. His work has focused on issues of race, identity, and power. He is professor of Film and Digital Media, and Oakes Faculty Fellow at UC Santa Cruz.
“In Lawrence Andrews’ Strategies for the development of / Redefining the purpose served / Art in the age of . . . A.K.A. the Making of the Towering Inferno (1989, 23 mins), art as a social agent is framed within community institutions, the museum, and the artist’s commitment to intervention. Using disruptive shifts of style, Andrews places art practice inside a larger matrix of ‘systems of support.’”
—Steve Seid, Activism and Aesthetics film program, BAMPFA, June 1991
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