The Sound After the Storm

Patrik Soergel, Ryan Fenson-Hood - Directors
Sven O. Hill - Co-Director
Three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is part ghost town and part third world country. Well known musicians Lillian Boutté, Dr. Michael White and photographer Armand “Sheik” Richardson use jazz as a philosophy and tool to save themselves and their abandoned, crumbling city. The Sound After the Storm tells a story in which this “music born of slavery” is reborn in response to Katrinaʼs devastation.

Given the title "Jazz Ambassador of New Orleans," Singer Lillian Boutté was the second jazz legend, since Louis Armstrong, in her city's history to be accorded this honor. Like Armstrong, Boutté brings the exuberance and warmth of New Orleans to audiences across America and Europe with her music, while also ringing out the yet unanswered distress calls of her city.

The New Orleans spirit reflected in the records of Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong is alive and well in a crowded club filled with the sounds of Dr. Michael Whiteʼs clarinet. Dr. White, arguably the foremost traditional New Orleans jazz historian and clarinetist, possessed one of Americaʼs most thorough collections of jazz artifacts, including vintage instruments, original sheet music and one of a kind recordings. This irreplaceable collection now lies in moldy heaps on the floor of Dr. Whiteʼs house near a major levee break, leaving him homeless and with only his music to turn to.

The energetic Armand “Sheik” Richardson, part photographer, part activist, part whirlwind, shoots thousands of pictures per week, as he puts it, “to preserve whatʼs left of New Orleans for future generations.” After years of working hand-and-foot to repair houses destroyed by the storm, Richardson finally unites with Boutté to form a musicianʼs aid organization to help Dr. White and others rebuild their lives.
A ventura film production, in co-production with RSI-Radiotelevisione svizzera, HillFilm and Dirk Manthey Film.

Patrik Soergel > Born in Locarno (Switzerland) in 1977. Patrik Soergel graduated at the European Film College in Denmark and made further directing and editing studies at the Academy of Performing Arts for Film, TV and Photo (FAMU) in Prague. He currently works as free lance director and editor for the Swiss television and several production companies in Europe and in the USA. He directed several shorts and documentaries. His work has been presented in various international film festivals and broadcasted in European TV stations.

Ryan Fenson-Hood > is a director and editor whose work has been broadcast on The Sundance Channel, MTV2, Swiss Public Television; seen in dozens of film festivals including Tribeca IFF, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Cinema Rome IFF; and distributed internationally on DVD by Zeitgeist and Netflix. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
http://www.telegraph21.com/video/the-sound-after-the-storm