Mississippi

The flood that destroyed New Orleans temporarily revived American journalism. For a few weeks, journalists rediscovered the power of words and images to affect public policy. But as Americans witnessed the catastrophe of New Orleans, an equally troubling story largely escaped notice. In the lower parishes of Louisiana and along coastal Mississippi, hundreds of thousands of rural people fought a similar battle for their lives. These events received far less attention at the time. And today, now that the story of New Orleans has dropped off the front page, the story of the destruction of the rural Gulf Coast has disappeared almost entirely.  Rural Strategies is completely a documentary video that continues to tell that story.