Flood Street
In New Orleans, the Lower Ninth Ward has become the poster child for the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. But before the flood waters decimated this neighborhood, it was home to Harry Sims, a longshoreman who worked all his life on the Industrial Canal, the same canal whose levees were breached.
Compelled by the growing violence around him, Harry, an amateur boxer in his youth, used his savings to purchase a plot of land on Flood Street and build an outdoor boxing ring on it. He then created a program where the neighborhood boys could come and learn to fight, all the while teaching them about discipline, sportsmanship, and respect -- virtues he knows will help them overcome abject poverty and steer them away from the drugs and violence that surround them.
Filmed and edited over the course of eight years, Flood Street is a visually rich and compelling journey, which not only follows Harry and his dream of taking his program and his boxers to the next level, it also introduces us to "Red Dog", Jamal, Korey, and "Too Too the Rumble Chicken and Gumbo", some of his most promising fighters who grew up in his program and who, themselves, struggle to become the men that Harry believes they can become.
The journey takes a devastating turn with Katrina's arrival. With his home and boxing ring destroyed, his boys scattered across the country, and an unsympathetic government, Harry is faced with the dilemma of relocating or staying and rebuilding his dream.