I’ve not had a chance to do a trip the last few weeks as things have been sort of busy and chaotic and my next backpacking trip is quickly approaching at the end of September, earlier than my usual November trip! I’ve been trying to work on plans and itinerary with that as well as keep up with work and daily grind.

This week I did manage to get in a short little period of relaxation and exploration. I went to a movie. The thing that made this special was that the movie was an independent movie about Hurricane Katrina and has only been released to a few theaters in New York and Los Angeles. But to make the movie even more special it was only showing at three theaters in Southern California one of them being the Long Beach Art Theater.

The Art Theatre is the last remaining single-screen movie theater in Long Beach, and one of only a handful in Los Angeles County.

When it opened in 1924, the 636-seat theatre showed silent films and contained an orchestra pit and a pipe organ.

Ten years later, following the 1933 earthquake, the theater was remodeled in the Art Deco style. Plans indicate the first building, constructed in 1924, was built in a modest vernacular style with "orientalizing" touches reminiscent of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. After the theatre suffered significant damage in the 1933 earthquake, it was redesigned by noted local architectural firm of Schilling and Schilling. In 1947 architect Hugh Gibbs added a glass-block wall and updated the marquee.

The Art Theater is a local Long Beach landmark and is protected from destruction and gross remodeling. Area residents are very pleased to see that not only the exterior will be restored but the interior will be refurbished in the Art Deco style, as well.

The theater was sold and renovations began in March of this year (2008). It just re-opened August 22^nd, 2008 and showing independent movies.

In addition to the old style movie house, there is also a coffee shop and wine bar attached to the theater.

The movie I went to see was Trouble the Waters, winner of the Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. The film shows the impact of Hurricane Katrina and what happened to the city's poorest residents both during and after the storm.

Roberts, who bought a camcorder off the street for $20 a week before the storm hit, intending to use it only to shoot family gatherings, captured the residents of the 9th Ward, one of the hardest-hit areas of New Orleans, as those who could got out and those who couldn't battened down the hatches in preparation for the storm. Roberts and her husband Scott were among those who were unable to evacuate the city because they had no transportation and no money to go anywhere. The mayor of New Orleans ordered the city evacuated, but there was no public transportation organized to get out those people who didn't have the means to do so on their own.

Roberts kept filming as the storm's intensity increased. When the levees (located just a few blocks away from her neighborhood) broke under the weight of the storm, the water rushed in, forcing Roberts, her family, and neighbors they took in to take shelter in the attic of her house. But the flood waters kept rising, trapping them inside, and there was no National Guard or Coast Guard attempt to rescue the stranded. During the most harrowing part of the film, we hear a call to 911begging for rescue, while the dispatcher just keeps saying there are no rescue vehicles available, and the police are not coming out "until the weather clears."

They finally manage to escape with the aid of a neighbor, who braves the floodwaters the police and National Guard refuse to venture out in to save his neighbors one at a time, using a punching bag and later a boat that floats by to move people to higher ground. In another incredible bit, we see a vacant military base being guarded by a few soldiers, who have been ordered not to allow displaced residents to take shelter there, even though the base has hundreds of rooms not being used. When a group of residents, including women and small children, came to the base seeking shelter, the soldiers turned them away with M-16s in hand; they were later given a commendation for their "bravery" in protecting the government's property.

Roberts keeps her camera rolling in the weeks that follow, showing the plight of the residents who have lost everything they own, the fight to get the $2000 per household payout from FEMA that's supposed to allow displaced residents to rebuild, and the Roberts' move to Memphis to start a new life -- and then back to New Orleans when they realize what they really want is to help rebuild their hometown.

As shocking as the story is, Trouble the Water is as much a story of hope and inspiration as it is about anger.

The best part of this theater is that admission is equal to and even less than some of the mega theater complex and shows a different movie each week. Plus the ability to see a gem of architecture preserved and watch a movie in a historical building!