THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART PRESENTS THE FILM SERIES When the World Broke Open: Katrina and Its Afterlives COMMEMORATING 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF HURRICANE KATRINA at The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art announces the film series, When the World Broke Open: Katrina and Its Afterlives from August 27 – September 21, 2025.

When the World Broke Open takes a cinematic look at New Orleans—a city of pleasure, politics, and pulsating prose that lives in the heart of anyone who seen its beauty—before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that continues to change American life 20 years later. This series, curated by New Orleans native, Katrina survivor, and programmer Maya S. Cade and critic and programmer K. Austin Collins, also explores how Katrina became the blueprint for who is protected in the aftermath of natural and unnatural disasters, as enduring infrastructural failures and climate catastrophes continue to ravage the country and the world.

Highlights of the series include Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a landmark documentary offering a powerful, multifaceted exploration of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation through testimonies from survivors, officials, and journalists. Filmed just three months after the storm, the film traces the disaster’s history and ongoing impact on the Gulf Coast, addressing issues like FEMA funding and civic distrust. The series also includes the pilot episode of Treme, which follows New Orleans’ resilient musicians, artists, and residents as they navigate recovery amid loss and change. Celebrated for its authentic portrayal of the city’s cultural soul, Treme stands as a tribute to New Orleans’ enduring spirit and complex realities in the storm’s aftermath. The screening of Treme is followed by a conversation with Wendell Pierce and David Simon.

The film series lineup also includes Les Blank’s Always for Pleasure (1978), a joyous chronicle of New Orleans culture; Garrett Bradley’s Time (2020), a lyrical meditation on love, loss, and incarceration in Louisiana; and Spike Lee’s If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise (2010), a look at the long aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Other highlights include Kasi Lemmons’s Eve’s Bayou (1997), Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023), and Margaret Brown’s Descendant (2022), each offering intimate perspectives on Black life and memory in the region. The series also features Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013), Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), and Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law (1986). Restoration premieres include Leo McCarey’s Belle of the Nineties (1934), written by and starring Mae West.