Writing About Lives

In July 2006 I spent a month researching and musing in Salt Lake City, reflecting upon what my life had been like living as a black journalist in Utah in the early 1990s. Walking the streets of downtown Salt Lake City, so much had changed. The new light rail system made navigating about the valley easier. Main Street, which had once been the most important commercial vein, was all but dead, a victim to a new mall several blocks west. And I noticed significantly more black people.

During my research, I met a Katrina survivor who was among the 600 evacuees who had been air-lifted from Louisiana after the Hurricane. “We didn’t know where we were going. We just were so glad to get on the plane and to be getting out of New Orleans. Then the pilot said, ‘We hope you enjoy your flight to Salt Lake City.’ Everybody said ‘Salt Lake City? Are there any black people in Salt Lake City?” As this woman told me her story, I knew that the evacuees would have there own narratives about what it was like to live in Utah as a black person. Filmmaker Alex LeMay has captured that experience. He sent a crew out to Salt Lake City and spent two years chronicling the stories in his new film “Desert Bayou.”

New Orleans and Salt Lake City couldn’t be more different. NO is below sea level. SLC isn’t. NO is mostly black. SLC is mostly white. NO has a reputation for being politically liberal. SLC has a reputation for being politically conservation. (Note, reputation, because it has a Democratic mayor and the highest percentage of registered Democrats in the entire state.)

Without ruining it, I will say it is a smart film conceptually. Spike Lee has already made what will be by many the Katrina film “When the Levees Broke,” a powerful, devastating and emotional film. Trying to redo that would have been pointless. LeMay has made a truly brave innovative but slightly flawed film. His movie attempts to answer a question that only a handful of us know the answers to: What is it like to be black living in a place like Utah?

LeMay covers a lot of material, from their arrival into Salt Lake City International Airport, their seclusion at The Camp Williams
National Guard training site 26 miles south of Salt Lake City and in the end focused on two families who struggled with transitioning to life in the Intermountain West. The fact that he got Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson on camera talking about some unflattering events, shows the power and seduction of film. That Anderson spoke is not a surprise but that Huntsman spoke is miraculous.

By the end, the film felt a little fractured, which may have to do with the editing. All in all, this is a powerful documentary on a race and class, something about which there is very little content in the popular cultural landscape. This film showcased the kindness of ordinary people, the awkwardness of the military and the state and federal government. After the screening in Manhattan last Friday night, LeMay himself conducted a question and answer session. Once I heard his views on government, it is remarkable how even handed this movie is. It is a movie worth seeing. http://www.desertbayoumovie.com