After the storm: Student films high school documentary

Jimmy Goldblum is no stranger to the halls of Ben Franklin High. Last spring, the College junior spent six weeks in New Orleans assisting his older brother Josh with the production of an online documentary about the school.

Formerly the head of new media for the American Museum of Art as well as a Smithsonian employee, in the wake of Katrina, Josh decided that he wanted to create an online narrative to help educate people about the reality of the situation in New Orleans.

"They decided that using the framework of a high school would be beneficial, as a lens," Jimmy said.

The narrative, entitled Yearbook 2006 and online at Y06.org, traces the lives of the Ben Franklin seniors whose lives were turned upside down by the storm. The site features 140 minutes of raw interviews as well as 360 photographs and other multimedia.

For his part, Jimmy - who had just completed a term abroad and was taking another semester off to tour Eastern Europe - was in Bosnia when his brother called from the Bayou and asked for his help.

Josh was working with two photographers but said he could use an extra hand. Going from Bosnia to the Big Easy, Jimmy served as the crew's project manager, filmed the documentary's interviews and also conducted a few himself.

"It was just this little microcosmic return to normalcy," Jimmy said of Ben Franklin. "Once you walked in those doors you're like, 'OK, I'm in a normal school with kids going through normal high school things.' But then you start getting their stories and they're just, oh my God."

From a girl who had to leave her dog behind when she evacuated - only to come back and find its body weeks later - to a student who was forced to leave behind his crippled grandfather for dead when he evacuated (the grandfather miraculously survived), Jimmy said the experience was emotionally draining and intense.

"I was completely affected by it. Anytime I see New Orleans news, my stomach turns," he said. "I didn't expect to have as much an emotional connection to the place."

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