Last February, director Spike Lee began filming a follow-up to When the Levees Broke, his 2006 documentary about Hurricane Katrina. Lee found high spirits in New Orleans but also a lack of housing and health care for the poor—as well as suspicions, among many, that the city’s rebuilding program had mainly benefited the elite. In April, when BP’s catastrophic oil well leak began, Lee found himself documenting a new disaster, during which Gulf Coast residents once again found their resilience tested by bureaucratic indifference. Monday–Wednesday, Aug. 23–25, at 9 p.m., HBO
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