We’re having our New Orleans premiere at The Contemporary Arts Center Tuesday June 10 at 7:30!

Director Jon Reiss with be there to introduce the film and host a Q&A!

CACNO is located at 900 Camp St., New Orleans, LA 70130.

To order tix early call 504.528.3828 or visit ticketweb.com.

This is a guest blog by an old friend of mine – Gilbert Mercier – who has documented much of the national travesty that was and is Katrina – not just the hurricane but also the abject neglect on the part of the federal government. (we hope this to be the first in a long series of guest blogs on various graffiti related topics)

To view some of Gilbert’s Katrina graffiti photos go to our flickr site - they are pretty amazing – more will be uploaded in the coming weeks.

Katrina’s Graffiti by Gilbert Mercier

I split my time between Los Angeles & New Orleans, my house is in Uptown, and most of my Victorian house is rented.

Before Katrina came to town, I made sure all my tenants were evacuated (I was in Toronto at the time), a good friend of mine boarded the house…. Then we just hoped for the best.

Needless to say my level of anxiety and frustration was running high. I came back to NOLA as soon as “ they” reopened the town from the lockdown (a little bit before in fact) to find a war zone atmosphere.

My house had very little damage…. I decided to do a proper and detail photo essay to illustrate the incredible failure and incompetence at all government levels (local, state and mainly federal) of the handling of a disaster that was mostly man made to start with.

All the words on walls specially fascinated me as an expression of so much pain and anger.

Three very different kinds of graffiti quickly appeared in New Orleans after Katrina. (more…)