Closed for Storm

I decided to buy this documentary both because I'm a huge fan of Bright Sun Films and because I'm a hardcore roller coaster enthusiast. I have had a huge interest in Jazzland/Six Flags New Orleans in the past and I couldn't pass this up when I found out it was being made.

Closed for Storm is an expertly made documentary with absolutely stunning drone footage of the abandoned park and the surrounding area. The cinematography is on point and the interview segments are very well done. I greatly enjoyed the storytelling of how the park was designed, built, operated and ultimately destroyed, and the historical footage provides a glimpse of the past and complements the interviews perfectly. Once we get to the Hurricane Katrina section it did tug on my heartstrings, with the footage of flooded homes, blazing fires and livelihood in ruin; I really felt for the people of New Orleans even though I was fairly young when the hurricane actually hit. I enjoyed the accounts by previous employees as well; they gave life to the park in a way that I had not considered before. This park employed hundreds of people and served as an escape for thousands in the area before Mother Nature came to remind everyone who was in charge. The soundtrack is also fantastic and it gave me chills on multiple occasions. I was really impressed overall by the documentary and I'm glad I pre-ordered it, if only to support one of my favorite YouTubers with his filmmaking endeavors. This documentary does not feel like an extended Bright Sun Films video, by the way - it's its own thing.

However, I do have a couple of issues with it. Number one is length - I feel like the documentary could have been 30 minutes shorter had some of the cinematic footage been cut; the footage of the theme park is great, but I found that there was a ton of unrelated footage that padded runtime and made the film unnecessarily long. At times I felt that this footage even took the place of a story, as it cut in at seemingly random times. This also goes for a few snippets of interview; although the vast majority of interview footage was necessary and interesting, there were a couple of times that I questioned if what I just heard was really needed to effectively tell the story.

This leads to my second issue, which is the story itself. The first half of the film is fantastic; it's essentially a chronological retelling of everything that happened with expertly filmed drone footage, historical video and interviews with people involved in the development and operation of the park. However, at about the halfway point or a little after, it started getting a bit messy. The timeline became unclear and it started getting into the nitty-gritty of two separate redevelopment plans that weren't ever finalized. Although this portion of the documentary did express how complicated the whole situation is and how indecisive the City of New Orleans is, I don't entirely think it was necessary to get into such detail with both of the plans; I think it would have been better to simply highlight any and all plans that have been proposed and/or rejected and make the documentary far shorter, ending it on a much stronger note than what was actually achieved.

Overall though, Closed for Storm is great. It's filled with breathtaking aerial footage of the abandoned park and interesting interviews that tell us the story of the development, operation and ultimate downfall of Six Flags New Orleans. The documentary does a superb job at conveying this through a mix of cinematic shots and urban exploration footage, similar to what you'd normally see on the Bright Sun Films YouTube channel. The urban exploration footage is very neat (although most of it was filmed at night with a flashlight for some reason) and I'm glad it was included as a supplement to the film. For the first attempt at a documentary by filmmaker Jake Williams, Closed for Storm is fantastic and I'd highly recommend checking it out.

PS: It would've been cool to see footage from on top of the rides or climbing up them, but maybe Jake is saving that for his YouTube channel ;)

As a big fan of the various Bright Sun Films, I was expecting a lot. This film either needed a whole lot more content to sustain the feature length or should be heavily edited and make it a short film.

Instead, it feels like one of their 25 minute Youtube videos with added, and duplicative, content. There is only so much meandering through the carnage wrought by Katrina the audience can take. Additionally, my guess is that the interviews they conducted had few gems. So, they chose to include a lot of filler, dull comments to keep striving for a feature film.

It didn't work.

Closed for Storm is just another example of how the bureaucracy of major corporations and government often leave citizens to pick up the pieces when hard to handle situations surface.

It's hard to believe that it has been 15+ years since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the New Orleans area. It's even harder to believe that there are places like the former Six Flags New Orleans (Jazzland Park) that have sat untouched for the last decade and a half. Walls caked with mold, buildings graffitied, ride vehicles stripped of anything valuable, towering rollercoasters that look like they could collapse at any moment, and a sign that has fittingly read "Closed for Storm" have remained in place for the last 15 years. These are just some of the disheartening images Closed for Storm features.

In Closed for Storm, several people were interviewed about the abandoned park, each one nostalgic for what once was and what could have been. You can't help but feel the disappointment in a number of the interviewees' tones when it came time to talk about the redevelopment, or lack thereof, of the property. As mentioned, we see bureaucracy show itself near the end of the film when plans for redevelopment of the area appears to leave out the voices of the citizens of East New Orleans and ultimately leave them with no real resolve.

Not only was it sad to see the archived footage of people's homes destroyed in 2005, but it was just as sad seeing this same area struggling to bounce back all these years later. The citizens of East New Orleans were promised increased property values and a Disney-like atmosphere, but instead, they were left with views of an abandoned amusement park and a never-ending cycle of unimplemented redevelopment plans.

The Film: Closed for Storm is filled with aerial shots of the the former Six Flags New Orleans property, stitched together with home videos from the early 2000s. Much like Bright Sun Films' YouTube videos, we get an inside look at several of the abandoned buildings and observe the damage that Mother Nature has done. Promotional videos are the perfect touch for viewers unfamiliar with the park's significance or history to understand the importance of the former Jazzland. Like the sign that reads "Closed for Storm", the park is frozen in time with several of the office calendars still showing August 2005 as today's date.

In Closing: If you have ventured to this film from Bright Sun Films' YouTube page, you're a fan of theme parks, or you familiar with New Orleans/Jazzland history, then this film is perfect for you. For those of you who may not understand the history of Six Flags New Orleans, I would still highly recommend Closed for Storm. The film pieces new footage with old footage in a way that tells a proper story of the park and its history.

-The Documentary District-

I am a huge fan of Jake, Bright Sun Films, and the Abandoned series he makes on YouTube.

This takes his concept from that Abandoned series to a long-form feature-length medium on all major platforms for the first time.

The documentary itself focuses on the rise and fall of New Orleans first major theme park. Jake does a fantastic job finding people from the community and interviewing them. He digs to the soul behind the abandoned structures. He also does a great job giving us the history of the park before Katrina so we as viewers care about the park as much as the people in the community did.

My biggest nitpick would be I found the last 15 minutes to be a little flat. The producers on the project gambled choosing to follow a few specific people trying to repurpose the land; no one got the ending they wanted. The gamble could have paid off, but even as is, I think there was a missed opportunity to show more of the heartbreak and disappointment this plot of land has been subjected to for the last 15 years. The last few scenes in the documentary are flat because we didn't get a deep emotional pay-off on one of the narratives they set up. Digging in deeper on the heartbreak and frustration of those people that were trying to repurpose the land may have elevated the final moments of this documentary just a touch.

If you are a fan of Abandoned on YouTube, this is a must-watch. If you are just a general fan of documentaries, this holds its own without any knowledge of Jake's previous work. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Katrina, New Orleans, theme parks, or urban exploration. For a first feature-length documentary this is an amazing achievement and Jake could easily find himself helming more documentaries in the future!

Well done and keep up the great work!

Strengths

• Jake is a fantastic narrator (A+++)

*** His slow and clear cadence works perfectly with the somber abandoned material, sweeping drone footage, and delivery of heartbreaking backstory; this is a skill he seasoned with hours of YouTube narration and he has a gift for narration***

• Interesting and diverse interviews cut well against other footage and peppered throughout
• Great footage. The drone work on the abandoned park is fantastic. They also mine old footage to juxtapose the current dilapidated state of rides against the vibrant footage from the past. Very well cut and one of the strengths of both this documentary and the Abandoned series!

Weaknesses

• At times the score overpowered the narration early; they did seem to dial this down later but I found a few spots in the beginning that the narration was fighting with the score
• The last 15 minutes was a bit of a letdown.

Having enjoyed the Bright Sun documentaries on Youtube I was pleasantly surprised to find this full-length feature on Kanopy.

A park is not a person, yet this story personalized the Katrina disaster more than anything else about I've previously seen. "Closed for Storm" focuses the tragedy on a place whose sole purpose was to bring joy. Heartbreaking to see what happened.. Great use is made of vintage footage showing the park in happier times and the interviewees are clearly sad about its demise. Understandably economics precluded the park's development, but New Orleans deserved better...and this film couldn't have made that point more clearly.