The NAACP has nominated Alex LeMay’s “Desert Bayou” for an Image Award for best documentary, just in time for the film’s DVD release on Jan. 29. Fox will broadcast the awards ceremony Feb. 14.
“Desert Bayou” follows 600 New Orleans residents who were airlifted by the military to Salt Lake City, Utah in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Met with initial discrimination and eventual generosity by locals, the New Orleanians were housed on an army barracks. Many chose to remain in Salt Lake, move into private housing and find work there.
“Hopefully the nomination will put the spotlight back on issues of race and poverty, that are still such a problem in this country,” LeMay said.
Fellow nominees are “Sicko,” “Darfur Now,” the expos? on the Haitian sugar industry “Price of Sugar,” and the L.A. gang history “Bastards of the Party.”
