Oakland, CA, USA - That television coverage of Hurricane Katrina and all those folks stranded and all the political posturing was pretty damned bad, unsettling, but now everything's All Good again, isn't it? Every local newspaper in America, from Nome, Alaska to Atlanta, Georgia, from Portland, Maine to San Diego, California carried a truly heart-warming story about a local church group that had taken in its share of evacuated folks from the storm or had a big old bake sale to send money to the Red Cross. We all felt warm and fuzzy about what wonderful people we really are and that was enough to help us forget about all those scary pictures from the Superdome and Convention Center in New Orleans. The President stood in Jackson Square and told us that, yes, he had seen the television coverage, too, and he had a plan to deal with the issues of poverty and prejudice, race and class, that those pictures brought to our attention - for all of two weeks.

That's all we needed to hear to be believe that it was going to be All Good for poor folks and for Black folks from now on. Yes, indeed, as those New Orleans folks used to say.

Then we told the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) the idea of putting up 200 unit trailer parks that everybody knew would be called "Bushville"s for those evacuated folks from the affected Gulf coast states would be a bad idea. Nobody wanted a new trailer park of those crackers and Yats near their town, that was for sure. You find somewhere else to put those folks - Gee, sorry they got devastated out of house and home, but hey, we heard a whole lot of them don't even have cars and we surely don't want their kind around here. ... READ MORE

New York, NY, USA - Having exploited his training as a theatrical director, 56 year old Britisher John Madden has transformed his experience into making the Old Bard-inspired feature "Shakespeare in Love" into ultimate success -- multiple Oscar wins. Now he has taken David Auburn's Tony-winning drama "Proof" and transformed it into a passionate film of the same name -- with a powerful quartet of actors, Anthony Hopkins, Gwenyth Paltrow, Hope Davis and Jake Gyllenhaal, driving it.

G21: When did you make the transition from theater to film?

JM: I can't really put a date on it. It was about 1986. I became a director while I was living in this country. I was directing radio plays originally and then became a stage director toward the end of the '70s. I had a good, productive career as a stage director in New York and other places. By that time, we had a family and moved back to the UK. I saw myself in the uncomfortable position of having a professional life in one country and my domestic life in another and couldn't tolerate that any longer. So, I decided to go back and make movies which is what I had wanted to do.

G21: Have you always wanted to be a filmmaker?

JM: I dreamed about it. I had grown up with movies and I had been as excited about the medium as everybody was in those days. I basically went back to learn the ropes. I made a film for British television in 1984 and I had a ball doing that.

G21: Are you surprised about how successful you've become?

JM: Yes. I am gratified and surprised. It didn't happen overnight. I've been working for a long time, so I slowly developed a reputation for myself and I make no apologies for that. I think it's great to know who you are because a lot of this work has to do with experience and maturity. ... READ MORE


ROD AMIS ON THE NEWS:

15 October, 2005: According to accounts I've received from my sources on the ground in New Orleans, as I have reported, the Gold Rush has begun. Speculators with reputed Deep Pockets are already picking off real estate listings for $800,000 (USD) and up that had been there for months before Le Deluge.

This had been rumored in other press sources but now we can report as a fact that it is true.

As to rental listings, the phones are ri nging off the hook. And, as Katy Reckdahl mentioned at the conclusion of my book, landlords are giving former residents of the high ground near the Quarter and elsewhere the Bum's Rush. My former roomie Shawn, who lived on Esplanade, got a call this week recommending that he come to New Orleans right away if he wants to keep his place. He is there this weekend.

For many of the former residents of the New Orleans I knew, ultimatums are the order of the day. Get back now, give me some money or don't come home. I'll put your stuff in storage until you can afford to come down and pick it up.