The trailer for Today, Naftali Beane Rutter’s documentary about a day in the lives of three New Orleans families, is unambiguous about its intent: “everything you’ve seen so far is about their hurricanes,” the opening text reads. “This movie is about their lives.”

Strictly speaking, that’s not quite true. While the word “Katrina” is rarely, if ever, mentioned in Today, the storm’s fallout is so deeply embedded in the lives of the protagonists that it hardly merits reference. Allusions to Katrina are oblique—people offhandedly mention “flooding” or “the storm”—and in one instance, a pediatrician cheerily asks where a family ended up after they were evacuated. But the hurricane’s presence is there, and its aftermath has been casually entwined with troubles that predated the storm. Of the three families profiled, one lives in a FEMA trailer, and the other two, respectively, survive off money earned from repairing flood damage and keeping the crime rate down in one of country’s most dangerous cities.

The film is shot over the course of a day and alternates between families, documenting the first alarm to the moment everyone heads to bed. Aside from a city, the Blaises, McPeeks, and Stanichs initially appear to have little in common: the Blaises live in a rural area near the bayou and fish for their dinner while the McPeeks and Staniches are lucky enough to have homes with foundations and regular paychecks. But domestic life soon emerges as the film’s unifying thread: everybody has routines to attend to, and many of the film’s best scenes involve adults interacting with the small and unfailingly adorable kids they watch during the day. Because Rutter avoids the New Orleans of tourist brochures, his vision of the city is grounded on the minutiae of family, in all its varying iterations. This succeeds in conveying the depth of domesticity, but at the same time, it doesn’t address the elephant in the room: why families chose to stay—or come back—after the storm.

There’s not much drama in Today, but the film’s vérité style is executed so well that it hardly seems to matter. Dialogue is spare but meaningful, and Rutter has a knack for the understated humor of everyday life. Depending on the landscape, camerawork alternates between tight, off-kilter shots and extended gazes into Louisiana’s green distances. With many of the scenes set in the claustrophobia of cars and FEMA trailers, the camera initially seems all too aware of the limitations of its environment, but as with adjusting to darkness, gradually learns to see in tight spaces.

Today is Rutter’s first feature-length film, and he’s clearly got a promising future ahead as a documentarian. His work is engaging without being pedantic, and at its best moments, can be very funny. Despite peripheral issues, the central observation of Today is spot-on: in the wake of the storm, New Orleans is often viewed as more of a fetish object than a city. By focusing on real people, Rutter elegantly avoids this danger, and reminds his viewers why it’s Crescent City lives, and not hurricanes, that should be the real subject of attention.

Today in New Orleans

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