July 8, 2025
Ryan Coogler’s Nat Geo Series “Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time” is required viewing
When Hurricane Katrina: A Race Against Time premieres later this month it will help reclaim the narrative for the people who lived it 20 years ago. The upcoming five-part National Geographic docuseries, executive produced by Ryan Coogler, was the focus of a deeply personal and emotional panel at this year’s ESSENCE Festival of Culture. Moderated by ESSENCE Senior Entertainment Editor Okla Jones, the discussion brought together director Traci A. Curry and series contributors Shelton Alexander, Lucrece Phillips, and Lynette Boutte, three New Orleans natives whose lives were forever changed by Katrina. Each offered unflinching testimony about survival, misinformation, loss, and the quiet heroism that rarely made national headlines.
“I was here two years ago at ESSENCE when I first started thinking about this project,” Curry shared. “I started asking people — Uber drivers, convention center staff, servers — what they wished the world knew about Katrina. Everyone said the same thing: ‘To y’all, New Orleans is the same. But to us, there was a before Katrina, and an after Katrina.’”
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That distinction between the outsider’s gaze and lived reality shaped every frame of the episode that was screened Saturday and provided a throughline for the panel that followed.
Shelton Alexander, a poet and storyteller, brought his camera with him into the Superdome as the levees failed and thousands sought shelter. “There was a reason I had that video camera,” Alexander said. “I know God knew I needed to get out there at a certain time. He also knew that I needed to be able to show some things because people wouldn’t believe them.”
His footage, now featured in the series, documents what mainstream media didn’t: the humanity, creativity, and calm that existed in the face of catastrophe. “We were marching and singing in the Superdome. But if I just said that, people would think I was exaggerating. Now you can see it.”
Lynette Boutte, a lifelong resident of Tremé, refused to evacuate during the storm because she believed she would be safe after surviving bigger storms, like Hurricane Betsy, during childhood. She wasn’t. “The militia — not the police, not the National Guard — came with AKs and told us to leave our own homes,” she recalled. She shared how misinformation spread faster than water: “They told us to go to a location that had no one there. We had to wade back through six feet of water, holding onto boats, just to survive.”
Still, Boutte resisted the false narratives. “We took care of each other. The same young men they called thugs came to check on the elders, to bring us water. All that talk about looting and violence was mostly lies.”
Lucrece Phillips fought through tears as she described being forcibly separated from children she’d been sheltering with in a hotel. After finally being evacuated to Dallas, officials took the children away because she wasn’t their legal guardian. “They were with me for days. I made sure they ate. I held them at night so they wouldn’t wander off,” she said. “If you remember Ms. Lucrece from that hotel, if you’re still out there — please, find me. I just want to know you’re okay.”
Curry made it clear that Race Against Time is about reframing and not revisiting the events of Katrina. “The levees broke. The systems broke. But the people did not break,” she said. “The media painted a picture of chaos and criminality. But when you actually listen to survivors, you see care, faith, and community. That’s the story we’re telling.”
The most poignant moment came near the end of the panel, when Alexander spoke from the heart: “We were better than what they wanted us to be. And we still are.”
Hurricane Katrina: A Race Against Time premieres July 27 on National Geographic, with streaming available on Hulu and Disney+ beginning July 28.
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