FAQs





	Frequently Asked Questions
	from Jim Powell, Producer


	t	Why did you produce "Children of the Storm?"
	t	The Production Story
	t	Did you touch any of the devastation or recreate any of the damage?
	t	In addition to your love for New Orleans and the Coast, is there anything else that makes you so passionate about these children?
	t	What is your contribution to the children's recovery?
	t	Who makes the profit from the DVD sales?
	t	Was this program balanced?
	t	We would like to have you screen the program to our group and talk to us. Could you do that?
	t	Is your footage available for purchase?
	t	We are a television broadcast station/network and would like to air the program. Would you consider this and how much would you charge?
	t	We are very interested in helping the children. What can we do besides direct donations? Fundraising?



	Why did you produce "Children of the Storm?" RETURN TO TOP
	As an experienced broadcaster and video producer/videographer plus with my wife's polished writing abilities,
	we set out to use our best to make people aware of a subject not being covered:
	"Hurricane Katrina's children survivor's problems."
	Even then, those problems are immense. So what you see in "Children of the Storm" is only a small representation
	of the thousands of stories.
	The Production Story RETURN TO TOP
	On August 29, 2005, my wife and I sat in tears watching our beloved New Orleans and Gulf Coast become
	a disastrous whirling bowl of sludge, debris and death. Charlotte, having lived in New Orleans in the sixties, had
	fallen in love with the city then. When I came along in 1984, I grew to love it and the Gulf Coast as well. During
	our extensive times there, we made many long term friends. Most of our friends lost everything to Katrina. One
	died as the result of the storm. We wanted to do something to help.
	One of those long time friends, a respected retired New Orleans Policeman, Asa French, invited us to stay with
	him in January of 2006 at his home in Covington on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Although the winds and
	flood nearly took his life in a small boat, his house suffered only roof damage. With much experience in most every
	neighborhood of New Orleans, he wanted to guide us through the devastation. This started our journey.
	With camera in hand on January 6th, we traveled through Lakeview, Gentilly, Eastern New Orleans,
	down through St. Bernard Parish and through Chalmette, the lower 9th Ward, Bywater, Treme, Uptown, Midtown
	and more. On future trips, we traveled the full Gulf Coast through Mississippi and to Bayou La Batre, Alabama.
	On that first trip and from those horrifying scenes of death and destruction, we knew that a short documentary
	could not show the enormity of the condition. It was (and still is) massive. But how do you show all the problems
	and all the conditions in one program. You can't. All you can do is a small fraction of the subject.
	So, after 6 trips, 35 days on the road, over 30 hours of professional recording, 30 interviews and 100s of hours
	of editing, we present "Children of the Storm, Hurricane Katrina, Through the Eyes of Children Survivors."


	Did you touch any of the devastation or recreate any of the damage? RETURN TO TOP
	No! In the same reverence that a person would give to a cemetery, we did the same with the destruction.
	What you see is as how we found it. No changes. No "enhancements" to create more sensationalism. It is as it
	was when we found it.


	In addition to your love for New Orleans and the Coast, is there anything else that makes you
	so passionate about these children? RETURN TO TOP
	I identify directly with them. On July 3, 1970, a terrible storm demolished our mobile home on Old Hickory
	Lake just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. My former wife, small son and I were inside. Holding on to each other
	in the hallway, the winds lifted the trailer onto one side, onto it's top, onto the other side, back on it's wheels and
	blew apart, dropping our bodies onto the ground just beside where the commode had fallen with a live wire above
	our heads. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was my 1 year old son. He appeared dead. After a
	moment, he started moving. I grabbed him and ran to a neighbors house, bleeding and in trauma. We lost everything
	and almost our lives.
	This kind of trauma stays with you. So, the children survivors of Katrina will have to deal with this experience
for the rest of their lives. They are the future leaders, workers and creators of the future communities
in which they live. How will Katrina's wrath affect them in their decisions? We would like to follow that story.


What is your contribution to the children's recovery? RETURN TO TOP
To make the American people as well as the World aware of the children survivor's problems both then and now.
Documentary production and distribution helps us achieve that goal.
Quite frankly, any child that suffers this type of trauma in any type of cataclysmic event, deserves his or her stories
to be told and to be understood. It helps them cope and adjust. It also helps the viewer who has suffered similar
problems to cope. A person to identify with.

In addition, Charlotte and I are donating $5 of each on-line DVD purchase of "Children of the Storm" to the
children's recovery including but not limited to classroom materials and supplies for those schools that helped us to
produce this documentary. DETAILS


Who makes the profit from the DVD sales? RETURN TO TOP
The entire production and this web site are totally sponsored by us. There is no organization helping us.
And we plan keeping in touch with the children who appear in the documentary providing video updates of their
condition. Purchase of the DVD will help us tell the continuing stories. Plus the $5 donation mentioned above.
Of course, we want as many people to know about the children's problems. That's why we have placed some of
the program free on the Internet in WMV files.


Was this program balanced? RETURN TO TOP
Hurricane Katrina selected no individual type of person or community. It wreaked death and havoc on the poor,
the rich, African-Americans, White, New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, the old and the young. If you were in it's way, it
was going to hurt you. We strove to tell the story as it was and as accurate and fair as possible.
In addition, we wanted to show how big this Hurricane was. Very few scenes were repeated in the entire
53 minutes. Most scenes last from 5 to 10 seconds. That's a great deal of damage!
Also, no political or rebuilding issue is discussed. We wanted the children to speak from their minds and their
hearts which they did.


We would like to have you screen the program to our group and talk to us. Could you do that?
RETURN TO TOP
Yes. It would be part of our continuing effort to make people aware of the children's condition. As you may
imagine, the stories are endless. 1,000s of children went through this trauma. We talked to 25 from varied
situations and backgrounds.
In addition, I'm sure your audience would have questions that were not addressed in the program.
Only a stipend to cover expenses would be required.
For more information, please email.


Is your footage available for purchase? RETURN TO TOP
Yes. We have 10 to 15 second clips from 20 hours of tape from most areas of devastation. Some shots have
never been seen on national television. Cost depends upon your use and the shot.
All shots are professionally shot on digital video with the camera that I have used for national broadcast program
interviews. Smooth movements and professionally controlled electronic levels have been applied on location.
If you see a scene in the documentary that you would wish, please note it's location on the documentary, what is
in the scene, and email your request.
Non-profit organizations receive a discount; other purchases are quoted at competitive fees.
For more information, please email.


We are a television broadcast station/network and would like to air the program. Would you consider this
and how much would you charge? RETURN TO TOP
Yes. Cost depends upon the market. For more information, please email.



We are very interested in helping the children. What can we do in addition to direct donations?
Fundraising?
The need is very great and every effort is appreciated. We invite you to become a sister/brother organization
to a school or children's organization in the devastated areas. Soon, you will find more of those listed on our
Donation's page.
As a fundraiser, you may want to consider screening "Children of the Storm" in your community accepting donations plus selling the DVDs. Please email your request for a discounted price. The cost depends upon
the number that you wish to buy. As mentioned above, I am also available to guest at your function for a travel
stipend.



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