00:00Please give a warm welcome to Grammy-nominated artist, star of the hit drama,
00:04The Shy, and New Orleans native son, Luke James, and Oscar-nominated director,
00:12Tracy A. Curry!
00:14Let's go!
00:17That boy can sing.
00:18Oh, nah.
00:22Good evening, Essence Festival family.
00:28What it is.
00:30What a celebration tonight, yeah?
00:33My name is Luke James.
00:37Appreciate you.
00:39And listen, I'm honored, I'm so honored to introduce a powerful new series
00:43from National Geographic, Hurricane Katrina, Race Against Time.
00:50Tomorrow, the world premiere is happening as part of Essence Film Festival
00:56with a Q&A featuring remarkable New Orleans residents and the director, Tracy A. Curry,
01:02who is here with me right now.
01:04Give it up!
01:05Hi!
01:06That's right, Luke.
01:08And hello, Essence Fest.
01:10I hope to see some of you tomorrow.
01:13I am so grateful to be back in this city to share this series with you here at the Superdome
01:19that has been reclaimed as a space for celebration.
01:22But for many, this building is sacred ground.
01:26During Katrina, it became a place of survival and strength.
01:31And as we near the 20th anniversary, this series lifts up their voices, the voices of the people
01:38who lived through it.
01:40Thank you for honoring this city and the people who call it home.
01:44And now, a message from the executive producer, V. Ryan Coogler.
01:55I'm Ryan Coogler, one of the executive producers on this series.
01:59This series is deeply important to me and to everyone who worked on it.
02:03When Katrina hit in 2005, the images on the news were impossible to ignore.
02:09But what we didn't see were the stories behind those images.
02:12The people, the decisions, the systems that failed.
02:16And the strength it took to survive, not just the storm, but the aftermath.
02:21Working alongside my colleagues at Proximity Media, the wonderful team at Lightbox,
02:26and under the powerful direction of Tracy A. Curry, we set out to tell those stories
02:30through the voices of the people who lived through the disaster.
02:33Residents, first responders, and community leaders.
02:38This is their account of what really happened and why it matters today.
02:42Thank you for being here and for taking the time to witness their stories.
02:48The city of Coogler is a mandatory evacuation.
02:53Here is a house.
02:58One thing about people from New Orleans, we knew how to survive.
03:04People coming out of one bad situation, they didn't know they was coming to another hell.
03:10Jerry, just let me know y'all a little bit.
03:12We need help.
03:14Can't forget, let me know you.
03:33You
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