People rarely enter into audacious commitments with such unforeseeable consequences. For me, it casts Utah in a new and, surprisingly, positive light.
Comment
10/22/07
Desert Bayou (2007)
78
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:18
Rotten:5
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Although the presentation is sometimes clumsy, the compelling interviews and story make Desert Bayou always informative and enthralling.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Synopsis: After the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of black evacuees were unwittingly transported to Utah, a state where only one percent of its residents were black in 2005. Featuring interviews... [More]
Reviews for Desert Bayou
The lengthy and often heartbreaking interview sequences in the second half ultimately reveal a story that is, metaphorically at least, a tad less black-and-white.
10/03/07
The failure of our current administration to act openly and efficiently in a time of crisis gets another documentary close-up in Alex LeMay's humanistic and provocative Desert Bayou.
10/05/07
Succeeds in furthering the much-needed dialogue on a defining event in our current political moment.
10/04/07
LeMay deftly follows the lives of two men, Clifford and Curtis. Their stories reverberate as a poignant indictment of a social disaster that began long before New Orleans' poor, black, and elderly citizens were abandoned to die.
10/02/07
[Director] LeMay earns points for his balanced presentation of key figures on both sides.
11/13/07
Top CriticA thoughtful and interesting look at a little-told Katrina story.
10/26/07
The result is by turns sad, infuriating, frustrating and cautiously hopeful.
10/18/07
A case of great material and sloppy presentation.
10/26/07
A scathing documentary baring a nation into deep denial about lingering buried injustices and inequities which rose to the surface exposed to the light of day, in the wake of the Katrina floods.
10/09/07
Does great justice to the appalling aftermath of the biggest natural disaster to hit America in our lifetime.
10/12/07
Thematic schizophrenia...it agrees that the media stereotype blacks as uneducated thugs and rappers, while its own main characters are crack addicts, ex-cons, and Master P.
02/03/08
LeMay's approach is a clumsily obvious one which demeans everything by turning the men's experiences into a kind of reality-TV soap opera.
10/12/07
A fascinating and guardedly hopeful tale about race, class, religion and geography in American life.
10/04/07
Stunning study of post-Katrina survivors trying to adapt to a racist Utah. Evokes Lost Boys of the Sudan.
09/20/07
This little known human interest story is a fascinating one.
11/26/07
Top CriticFeels less like a revelatory feature film than several shorts strung together.
10/05/07
Top CriticA fascinating glimpse at the almost endless obstacles given to Katrina survivors...
01/27/08
Screenwriter Thomas Lemmer and director Alex LeMay appear to have some sort of agenda or ax to grind.
10/25/07
There are thousands of untold stories still left to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's worth hearing the ones Alex LeMay shares in this compassionate, if somewhat underdeveloped, documentary.
10/05/07
Latest News for Desert Bayou
October 18, 2007:
DesertBayouMovie.com: A damning documentary about the far less than welcoming open arms extended to these domestic refugees when they were airlifted out of harm's way into a different kind of uncertainty and racial animosity. 
More...
October 08, 2007:
A provocative post-Katrina documentary.
More...
October 04, 2007:
Critical Consensus: Heartbreak Needs Discipline, Jane Worth Perusing, Seeker Reeks
This week at the movies, we've got honeymooners (The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben Stiller and Michelle Monhagan), teenage heroes (The Seeker, starring Alexander Ludwig),... More...
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