POV Community Engagement & Education DISCUSSION GUIDE I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful A Film by Jonathan Demme www.pbs.org/pov FILMMAKER JONATHAN DEMME Since Jonathan Demme began his career working with Roger Corman in 1971, he has directed and/or produced more than 30 movies. New projects in the works include the third installment in his performance trilogy with Neil Young, Neil Young Life , an animated version of Dave Eggers’ book Zeitoun , an adapta - tion of Michel Faber’s novella “The Courage Consort” and three forthcoming New Orleans portrait documentaries along the lines of I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful. LETTER FROM THE FILMMAKER After Carolyn’s house was flooded and she endeavored to rebuild her home after the waters subsided, I was privileged to gain her permission to keep track of her progress. I didn’t know at the time that these filming visits would stretch over the next five years, including 21 visits. Nor did I realize what an amazing portrait of an “ordinary” American would emerge over time. The film changed from a record of reclaiming her home into a documentary about a truly extraordinary woman. Jonathan Demme Filmmaker, I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful DISCUSSION GUIDE I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful |2 TABLE OF CONTENTS CREDITS 3 Introduction Writer 4 Potential Partners Faith Rogow, PhD 4 Key Issues Insighters Educational Consulting 4 Using This Guide 5 Background Information Guide Producers and Background Research, POV 5 Profile: Carolyn Parker Eliza Licht 5 New Orleans Before Katrina Vice President, Community Engagement & Education, POV 6 • Holy Cross and the Jamie Dobie Lower Ninth Ward Coordinator, 7 Hurricane Katrina and the Community Engagement & Education, POV New Orleans Levees Cheryl Austin Intern, Community Engagement & Education, POV 7 Post-Katrina: Federal Aid and Recovery 8 • Road Home Program Marlaina Martin Intern, Community Engagement & Education, POV 8 • The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Design: 9 • Rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward Rafael Jiménez 11 General Discussion Questions Eyeball 11 Discussion Prompts Copy Editor: 13 Taking Action Natalie Danford 14 Resources 16 How to Buy the Film Thanks to those who reviewed this guide: Daniel Wolff Director/Producer, I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful Author, The Fight For Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back INTRODUCTION When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, neighborhoods across the city were flooded. But nowhere was devastation greater than in the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood bordered by the Industrial Canal and the Mississippi River, home to a vibrant African-American community and one extraordinary woman. Several months later, Academy Award®-winning director Jonathan Demme and producer Daniel Wolff set out to document the devastation and rebuild - ing of the Crescent City. After Demme met Carolyn Parker and gained permission to film her progress, what began as a historical documentary morphed into a deeply personal character study of the courage and resiliency of this fierce, opinionated matriarch and community activist. I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful, shot over the course of five years, is Demme’s intimate, unvarnished chronicle of Parker’s five-year crusade to rebuild her beloved neon-green house, her church, her community—and her life. DISCUSSION GUIDE I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful |3 POTENTIAL PARTNERS KEY ISSUES I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beauti - I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beau - ful is well suited for use in a variety of settings and is es - tiful is an excellent tool for outreach and will be of spe - pecially recommended for use with: cial interest to people looking to explore the following topics: • Your local PBS station • Groups that have discussed previous PBS and POV • Activism films relating to institutional racism, social • Community organizing activism, community leadership and/or • Disaster relief perseverance, including The Barber of • Economic justice Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, Flag Wars, Chisholm ’72: Unbought & • Environmental Justice Unbossed and Street Fight • Equity issues • Groups focused on any of the issues listed in the • Family Key Issues section • Government • High school students • Hurricane Katrina • Faith-based organizations and institutions • Leadership • Cultural, art and historical organizations, • New Orleans institutions and museums • Philanthropy • Civic, fraternal and community groups • Race and racism • Academic departments and student groups at • Religion colleges, universities and high schools • Resilience • Community organizations with a mission to promote education and learning, such as local • Social justice libraries • Socioeconomic class • Spirituality • St. David Catholic Church • Urban planning • Volunteerism USING THIS GUIDE This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection, designed for people who want to use I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and listening actively. The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult. For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit www.pbs.org/pov/outreach DISCUSSION GUIDE I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful |4 BACKGROUND INFORMATION Profile: Carolyn Parker New Orleans Before Katrina As the levees broke and the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina Daniel Wolff, I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and barreled up the mouth of the Mississippi River, Carolyn the Beautiful producer and author of The Fight for Home: Parker’s home in the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Or - How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back , describes Hurricane leans, Louisiana, was submerged, and her neighbors had to Katrina as more of an acceleration of the history of New Or - be rescued from their rooftops by helicopter. After authori - leans than a turning point. The storm illuminated systemic ties found no trace of Parker for weeks, the local newspaper problems that had existed in New Orleans for decades, and pronounced her dead. But Parker had survived. She had the city’s geographic vulnerabilities, social inequalities and been one of the last people to leave her neighborhood under lack of support systems set the stage for a long and difficult mandatory evacuation and was one of thousands of other recovery. newly homeless victims of the storm. The population of New Orleans had been on a steady de - Parker eventually reunited with her children and her brother, cline for nearly a half-century before Hurricane Katrina. Ac - Raymond. She then became a voice for the displaced people cording to the 2010 census, New Orleans had lost more than of the city’s Lower Ninth Ward, who were scattered all over 140,000 residents from 2000 to 2005, reflecting a 29 per - the country, waiting to come home. Parker gained instant cent drop from its peak of 600,000 in 1960. This was largely recognition in January 2006 after her public rebuke of New due to the high crime rate and lack of jobs in the city and ul - Orleans mayor Ray Nagin—she railed at him and a commit - timately resulted in thousands of abandoned homes and va - tee of experts, promising that if they pulled down her house cant businesses, driving median rent down to approximately it would be “over my dead body.” The entire country took $650 a month. Before Katrina, half of the city’s residents notice, and Parker says that when President George W. Bush lived in households with incomes of less than $25,000 a year was asked about her indictment of the government, he and nearly a quarter were living at or below the poverty line. replied, “No comment.” New Orleans ranked second among the nation’s 50 largest cities in terms of the number of neighborhoods it had in ex - As the waters retreated, Parker was one of the first residents treme poverty. New Orleans also ranked second in the to move back to the Lower Ninth Ward. While she waited United States in terms of the gap between rich and poor. for funds to reconstruct her house, she lived in a 10-by-24- foot FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Despite New Orleans’ vulnerabilities the city was (and has trailer for three years with her daughter, Kyrah Julian, who long been) critical to the nation’s economy. The cargo that had returned home from Syracuse University to help. Her flows through the Port of New Orleans creates $37 billion in son, Rahsaan, joined the family from California, where he had economic output annually and close to 380,000 jobs in the just completed his master’s degree, and he lived in the gut - United States depend on goods handled by the Port of New ted shell of Parker’s home. Parker immediately began advo - Orleans. In addition, southern Louisiana rivals the Persian cating for the rebuilding of her cherished St. David Catholic Gulf in the number of natural gas and oil refineries and its Church, the only Catholic church that welcomed blacks fishing industry is one of the largest in the United States, re - when she was growing up.