He's well-known around the globe, mostly for This is Spinal Tap and as the voice of animated characters in a couple of popular TV series, but New Orleanians still find him regularly featured in small local publications like Gambit and Offbeat. That's because he's really a part of the Crescent City. He lives there like a local, not a tourist on extended vacation, unlike some other folks.
There's a common series of superstars the city gets from time to time, like Trent Reznor or Nick Cage, who claim uptown mansions as temporary homes which they use as either 1) Mardi Gras frat houses until they're arrested for juvenile, tourist-like behavior, or 2) reclusive hideaways from which they only step outdoors to complain about New Orleans' true and non-drunk-tourist culture. Then they leave, eventually, and badmouth the city to media while standing behind an entourage of press agents and personal assistants.
But you won't find Shearer in the NOPD's central lockup, and you won't see him chasing tourists away from a Garden District home. You'll see him chowin' down a muffuletta, maybe, or at City Park, or strolling down Magazine Street, or atcha mama's jernt ovah by da lakefront chompin' down dem erstahs, hawt. Harry's an adopted Yat, meaning this story was personal for him, too. And I knew he would know what us Yats wanted to know.
For that reason did I sit throughout a special showing at a theater in Charleston, South Carolina, where I've lived since Katrina, back in 2011 when the film was first released, and which Shearer himself attended. I trusted The Big Uneasy to tell me a unique and insightful story, unlike those shock flicks, and directly from the perspective of one who knows and loves the city, who calls it home.
And it didn't try to shock me with tragic images or pull my heartstrings; it told a factual, insightful story that I wanted -- needed -- to see and hear and confirm.
Shearer stayed around after the showing to answer questions. There were a bunch I wanted to ask, but thought better of when I admitted to myself I would probably only use that experience as opportunity to release personal tensions, or maybe even just to point out to the crowd that a N'Awlins dude was amongst their Lowcountry selves. I kept my hand down.
I did mention it to Shearer directly, though, in the personal conversations he spent much time having with the audience after the Q&A. "I'm from Gentilly," I said, which he responded to with a wide-eyed "Heeeeyyyyy!"of recognition, which I'll egotistically claim to indicate the comfort I bestowed by letting him know a true Yat, my honorable dudeness, had selflessly attended the showing of his film.
I could tell you very many details about the movie, but I won't. Again, this is not any official review by any official critic. I will, though, urge you to watch The Big Uneasy (the entire documentary is right below) to learn those details yourself.
It tells very many facts that will answer very many questions. It tells of the folks who provided those facts, and even though they paid both professional and very personal prices in the process. (And it will tell you of many topics you can bring up for conversation next time you buy me an Abita Beer!)
The Big Uneasy tells the story that no one else was willing to tell, and from a perspective that no one else could tell it. And for that, I am truly thankful.
Okay, let me apply a few details that some might expect to find in a movie review (which I still swear this is NOT). It's 98 minutes long. It's unrated, but at worst would get a PG-13 for its quick inclusion of some boob-flashing tourists and a mild adult utterance or two. Awards, nominations and film-festival selections of The Big Uneasy total nine. It includes interviews with many from the local community, and The Big Uneasy also features some intersperses with actor John Goodman (who's another great adoptee of the Crescent City). You can watch it in its entirety right here on this page.
As for an actual description, I'll just share some of the production's own "about" release:
In his feature-length documentary 'The Big Uneasy,' humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer gets the inside story of a disaster that could have been prevented from the people who were there. Shearer speaks to the tireless investigators and experts who poked through the muck as the water receded, and uncovers a courageous whistle-blower from the Army Corps of Engineers. His dogged pursuit of facts reveals that some of the same flawed methods responsible for levee failure during Hurricane Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the "new" New Orleans from future peril.
It still mystifies me that mass media (and yes, big movie studios, too) remain absent from insight on Hurricane Katrina. Or maybe just don't want to tell the facts. Or maybe are afraid of the public knowing those facts. It also bewilders me that we have to rely solely on the fortitude of brave individuals like Harry and the folks he features in his film to give us the details.
Shearer's original press release for The Big Uneasy asks the same question, although with much better wordage, and which I'll use in closing:
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