Ride Hamilton's Katrina Photography

Katrina

Photographs

        Katrina Photos

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.

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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

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What are these interviews used for?

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All materials go to the Louisiana State Museum Archives

Selected materials will be in the 2009 Louisiana State Permanent Katrina Museum in the Cabildo in the French Quarter

Selected materials have/will appear in books and magazines, printed and online

Selected materials have/will appear in documentaries, in theaters, television, online, and DVD

Selected materials have/will appear in museum exhibitions around the world.

Selected stories will comprise a non-fiction screenplay and movie.

Publications, Ect.: Anthem Magazine, Consumer Affairs, Ogden Museum, Louisiana State Museum, Texas Lutheran University, Various Newspapers, Etc.

All work is currently NON-PROFIT. I invest my own personal savings into this work, because I firmly believe in telling the real and personal stories of the people

affected by this tragedy, and receive almost no financial re-imbursement, and donate much of it to help further the knowledge of what happened during and after

Katrina and Rita.