Film and Literary Agent Needed - The Katrina Screenplay is Finished!
(Contact 504-587-9818 or Screenwriter @ Me.com)
My Katrina screenplay and book are creative non-fiction based on real-life events captured by myself on 200 hours of video, 30,000 photographs, and over 100
interviews, most recorded as it was happening those first days and months of the storm. The book is nearing completion, and the screenplay is finished. The
works have the - often exclusive - major cooperation of local first responders and residents from all aspects and areas of the storm.
THE SCREENPLAY
I will email the synopsis, any pages needed, and discuss the specific story on the phone or email.
Trust me, it's a hell of a story, and covers every aspect of the storm.
The screenplay is composed of action, drama, romance, and tragedy. I have written it truely, yet in a way that is extremely commercial. Think of combining the
best aspects of Titanic, Traffic, Rescue Me, SWAT, Grapes of Wrath, and Dr. Shivago with NEW ORLEANS and KATRINA.
I have worked closely with all the real people these characters are based on, and have much of what they really did on video and in photos. It's a very important
work. I've spent 4 years on it, and it will be the only screenplay telling the true stories of the storm from all angles. No one can get this story right unless you were
there, and I was there.
I also have other finished screenplays.
A FILM AGENT is now needed.
______________________________
Who am I and what do I do?
I live here, in New Orleans. I was in the city and Gulf Coast every single day from before Katrina, to its landfall, to its aftermath.
I lived the months it was without regular food, water, electricity. I know what we all in the Gulf Coast survived through.
I have travelled from New Orleans to Mississippi to Texas to Plaquemines to St. Bernard and Jefferson Parish to cover every
aspect of the storm with tenderness, intimacy, integrity, and honesty.
This is a small sample from 30,000 photographs taken since just before Katrina made landfall.
I continue to work closely and side-by-side with first responders, residents, government leaders, and volunteers to capture their
stories in photographs and video. Working alongside the heroes, residents, and people afftected by Katrina, allows an intimate
and detailed portrait to be made. I have been on body recovery with Urban Search and Rescue, and in the destroyed houses of
victims, and in the morgue with the coroners, and in airplanes and boats looking over the disappearing wetlands.
Many journalists only spend 15 minutes with a person, often at a distance and without their consent or permission. They often
do not credit or tell the full story of their subject, and twist words and events around to make it dramatic enough to sell a
million newspapers or make the evening news. This angers me as a fellow journalist. As I always believe the truth is dramatic
enough, and those directly involved in disasters from first responders to residents deserve their whole story to be told, with
their own words, with the only agenda being to let the world know who these real people are - and that they are often heroes, in
big ways and small ways, from rescuing hundreds to helping hammer in a new roof on a new house.
I spend many hours, and sometimes weeks with each person and group, so I may hear their story, from their mouths, and so the
world may know them as personally as I do - their name, their face, their contribution to the Katrina story. I do not look for
controversial or sensational topics as other reporters do. I look for who these people are inside, the hard work they do, how
they have suffered yet continue to carry on and help others - be it first responder or resident.
If they are a firefighter, I ride in the truck with them - if it is a volunteer, I often put down my camera and help hammer in nails -
if it is a resident, I help them dig through debris looking for cherished items - whoever they are, whatever it is, I help carry
equipment, belongings, tools, and get dirty with them all. I share lunch and dinner, and even eventually share personal stories
only friends share.
I become friends with all I photograph. This is extremely important to me, to earn the trust of all involved. Very few
photojournalists earn this respect from their subjects. To me, it is a sign of a job well done. That we can all agree that the story
is told properly. And that the person involved, is proud to hang the pictures I have taken of them and their job, on their walls at
home.
I live here, and I see the hard work done on all levels from all people, and the courage so many have inside of them. This is what
I capture. (Click on each picture or the above text menus for the photograph galleries.)
Katrina Videos: YouTube.com/RideHamilton
Ride Hamilton
Photojournalist