Hurricane on the Bayou

Hurricane on the Bayou
The theatrical poster for Hurricane on the Bayou.
Directed by	Greg MacGillivray
Produced by	Greg MacGillivray Anne Marie Hammers Glen Pitre
Written by	Glen Pitre
Starring	Meryl Streep Allen Toussaint Tab Benoit Chubby Carrier Amanda Shaw
Narrated by	Meryl Streep
Cinematography	Brad Ohlund
Edited by	Jim Foster Neguine Samani
Distributed by	IMAX
Release date	2006
Running time	42 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Hurricane on the Bayou is an American 2006 documentary film that focuses on the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane on the Bayou is both a documentary of Hurricane Katrina's effects and a call to restore Louisiana's wetlands, rebuild New Orleans, and honor the culture of the city. The film is narrated by actress Meryl Streep and driven by a jazz-, blues-, Cajun-, and gospel-fueled soundtrack featuring Tab Benoit, Amanda Shaw, Mavis Staples, and Allen Toussaint.

It was originally a "what-if" scenario about a major hurricane impacting New Orleans – prior to Hurricane Katrina. The film debuted at the Entergy IMAX in New Orleans, on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, several months before being shown elsewhere.

The film begins in the bayou itself, as a family of alligators frolic in the water to the tune of the Cajun classic “Iko Iko". The story then sets off on an historical exploration of how New Orleans rose up hundreds of years ago out of an untamed swampland – and went on to become celebrated around the world as “The Big Easy", a place where a feeling of joyful freedom permeated the music, the food and the city’s inimitable talent for turning “good times” into an art form. Here, a spicy gumbo of African, Native American, Cajun, Creole and Southern influences forged a completely unique culture. Louisiana’s coastal location (the state contains 40% of all the coastal wetlands in the continental U.S. according to the National Wetlands Research Center) was both a boon and a bane to the city. New Orleans evolved into the busiest port in the U.S., but after engineers diverted the Mississippi River, depleting the wetlands, the city became increasingly vulnerable to the killer winds and rising waters of seasonal hurricanes.