Biloxi High School hosts premiere showing of “Hope in High Water” documentary

BILOXI, Miss. (WXXV) — Songs of hope and remembrance filled the air at the Biloxi High School Performing Arts Center on Monday as I Am New Orleans hosted a community conversation and the premiere of “Hope in High Water — A People’s Recovery 20 Years After Hurricane Katrina.”

“So the focus of this documentary, I’m proud to say, is more on recovery and the strength and the power of the people and community, and what they’ve done 20 years later,” Rhea Williams-Bishop, the Director of Programs in Mississippi and New Orleans for the W.K Kellogg Foundation, said.

The documentary was created by Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist Trymaine Lee, who worked for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans when the storm made landfall. It highlights stories of recovery from individuals and organizations impacted by Katrina.

“It’s such a privilege to come back to come back to the Gulf Coast and help amplify the stories again, and again, I was there in the beginning, and so now here we are two decades later,” Lee said. “It’s a great opportunity to tell the story.”

Among those featured in “Hope in High Water” is Kimberly Merchant, the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice. The organization was founded in 2003 and was based in Jackson, Mississippi, but it came to the Mississippi Coast following Katrina to assist in recovery efforts.

“Once Katrina happened, you had an influx of attorneys from all over the nation just coming to this spot wanting to know, ‘What can we do, what can we do?” Merchant said. “The Center for Justice organized those attorneys, created a space and a system where we then could figure out how we could help those who were in immediate need at the time. That work then shifted from that moment; for the next three years, we were helping Katrina survivors.”

Aside from the documentary screening, performances by the Biloxi High School choir and a panel of speakers, gusts had the chance to honor those who helped them following the storm and share their stories.

Stories that emphasize how communities can come together, even in disaster.

“The ways that folks experienced it here, the great loss, but also in the face of that loss standing up to help heal each other… you know, [it] really helped fill my spirit,” Merchant said. “So, there’s going to be a lot of talk around the anniversary of what was lost during Hurricane Katrina, but this documentary focuses on what was gained, what was amplified, and that’s the spirit of the people.”