Hip-Hop Island

Before Hurricane Katrina, life in the New Orleans projects was nothing to brag about. Filled with drugs and violence, the streets of the Desire Projects were congested with people living in tightly packed shacks. To an outsider, completely unlivable, but for two brothers, Killer and Gangsta, they own the streets and hustle for a living. Desire is their home, it’s everything they know, and getting out is usually a short lived dream.

Set five days before the fatal hurricane hits, "Waters Rising," directed by Greg Carter and Shawn McEiveen, takes us inside the lives of one family’s emotional turmoil before their lives change forever. Katrina took over 1,800 lives, but how many were saved and altered for the better?

Recently released from prison, Gangsta has just served time for a car theft committed by his young brother Killer. As Gangsta vows to leave behind his criminal lifestyle and run away with his girlfriend, Killer brings him back for just one more job. What should be a simple heist turns into a suspenseful disaster that is thrown off course as lives are taken.

“Waters Rising” is an amazing look at the disaster that was Katrina and lives that defined New Orleans. Literally, Katrina destroyed and ravished everything in its path, but on the other end of the spectrum, the hurricane took away everything that was killing and depriving the lives of the poor in New Orleans. Sad, but true.

Gangsta and Killer come from a broken home – crack-addicted mother, father lost to violence, and younger siblings growing up too fast. Unfortunately, they symbolize most of New Orleans youth. "Water Rising" is an incredible story of one family's drive to stick together for a better tomorrow and fight the brewing storm.

Originally published @ http://www.hhnlive.com/reviews/more/146