'Flood Streets' pours into Naperville film festival
Real estate agent Helen Krieger and Joseph Meissner, a martial arts instructor with a flair for acting, had been living in New Orleans for only four years when Hurricane Katrina put the city in her sights in 2005 and made them flee.
While contemplating a return to the their damaged home and devastated city, not knowing what they would encounter, the husband and wife decided to reinvent themselves.
"We were thinking, 'If there isn't a city to go back to, how would we reinvent ourselves?' So we decided to do things that we ordinarily would have never gotten to do," Meissner said.
"So we went to a wilderness survival camp, spent time in a sensory deprivation chamber and I finally got certified in lifting Russian kettle bells."
Ultimately, the couple decided they would make a film. Meissner "got serious" about his acting, Krieger focused on her writing.
"'Flood Streets' was born from the collaboration and features our true talents," Krieger said. "I wrote it and Joseph performed in and directed it."
The result was a film based on a collection of stories loosely based on real people and their experiences coping with life in a post-Katrina New Orleans.
Madeline is a pot-addled real estate agent who encounters a squatter in an abandoned home; Matt is a reformed bohemian trying to go straight, while resisting a crush on his dentist. And 9-year-old Abby tries to sell home insurance to her friends in an effort to buy a boat for her family.
Much of the plot is based on Krieger's own experiences in New Orleans, both pre- and post-Katrina.
"Joseph and I were just joking that all of the characters are me to a certain extent. I really put my own personality on them," she said. "But I also toured so many homes and areas while I was working as a real estate agent and I took notes as people told me their stories."
Meissner said he thinks the stories and the positive way in which the film has been embraced, especially in New Orleans, can be attributed to the authenticity in which they tell the story.
"So many people came here to document our stories post Katrina, and they captured the doom and gloom. But down here, we have a sense of humor about things that helps us deal with tragedy," Krieger said. "If you're not from New Orleans, you just don't understand the satire; that it's never too soon to make a joke."
"Flood Streets" will be screened at 10:20 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, at Classic Cinemas Theater 5 as part of the fourth annual Naperville Independent Film Festival. Both Krieger and Meissner will host a question-and-answer session following the screening.
"We'll be there to watch it with the audience. As a new filmmaker, the best thing you can do is sit in the back of a theater and just soak in the audience vibe," Krieger said.
"When you get a theater full of viewers, the collective intelligence of the room goes up. It's just a great education for us as we present our first film."
Making the film was no small chore, and neither would divulge the costs associated with making the film. But they did offer that they fixed up their storm-damaged home, sold it and moved into Meissner's martial arts school, and used the money to finance the movie.
"Suffice it to say, we bought two digital cameras and made the film with the proceeds from the sale of a home we didn't own very long," Krieger said. "That should give you an idea."
The hardest part of the whole process, she said, was establishing a budget and sticking to it while also finding locations.
"Once everyone understood we were locals and understood the film we were making, people just let us take over their homes," she said. "It was amazing."
Local folks with legal backgrounds also pitched in and helped with the filing of the appropriate Screen Actors Guild paperwork and other issues.
"But it was all worth it to put ourselves out there in a project that excites and interests us," Meissner said. "'Flood Streets' speaks to the change the whole world is going through now. We see infrastructure collapse, our economy in decline. It's an interesting time, and these characters go through what everyone all over the world is going through."