So they set out , planning to do a film about New Orleans National Guardsmen . But when that was shut down -- '' ` Fahrenheit 9/11 ' screwed it up for all you guys , '' she remembered hearing -- they found what she called `` an unexpected gift '' in Kim and Scott , whom they met 10 days after the storm . The home video material , coupled with archival news footage and film verite capturing the couple 's journey , led to the documentary `` Trouble the Water , '' which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and is up for an Oscar at this year 's Academy Awards . Lessin and Deal , who both directed and produced this documentary that took two-and-a-half years to make , spoke to CNN about their Ninth Ward collaborators , their own experiences and the impact the film 's made . CNN : Tell me about meeting Kim and Scott . Did you know right away that you were on to something ? Tia Lessin : We were in a Red Cross shelter in central Louisiana -- that 's where we met the subjects
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Before the storm hit and the floodwaters took over , Kimberly Rivers Roberts pulled out her new video camera . Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband , Scott , sit outside their flood-damaged Ninth Ward home . The aspiring rapper and her husband , Scott , were among those trapped in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans , Louisiana , in late August 2005 as Hurricane Katrina raged toward them . The couple , who 've described themselves as street hustlers , compiled amateur footage that captured the horrors experienced in their community and among their neighbors . From the middle of rising waters in attics where people waited to the struggles to find help from and for others , they documented what outsiders could n't see . About 1,300 miles away , in Brooklyn , New York , documentary filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal sat glued to their televisions . `` After a few days of seeing people stranded on roofs , we had to do something , '' said Lessin , who with Deal had previously worked with Michael Moore . Watch Lessin and Deal talk about how the film was made ''