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BILOXI
DVD contrasts Aug. 28 and Aug. 30, 2005

Brash young voices filled with bravado, defying the elements and predictions of a Category 5 hurricane, can be heard while the landscape along U.S. 90 flashes by as J. Justin Pearce and friends shoot video on Sunday, Aug. 28.

Pearce, a Biloxi native and a member of the Moran family of artists, was testing new video-production equipment.

Those images, lush with the vibrant greens, brilliant blues and classic whites of Biloxi beachfront property, are suddenly intercut with images from Aug. 30 and afterward - images so stark they look black and white - unless you notice the brilliant blue skies are still there.

Pearce looks at himself and his home unflinchingly in "Katrina Diary," a DVD movie he shot and produced to help tell the story of what happened to him and his home.

The bravado and jesting between Pearce, Errol White and Micah Tyler changed with the decision to evacuate the morning of Aug. 29. Pearce tells the viewer his decision to leave his beachfront home saved his life.

"It sort of just happened," Pearce said of the movie. "I'd just gotten my production equipment and I wanted to do something before I left for officer's school. I said, 'Let's just pretend the hurricane is going to blow down everything so I can play with the equipment.

"It started as way to use footage before and after, but I realized that the way we were acting was the way a lot of people were acting. Basically, it's about the people. It was pretty moving to me."

The footage follows waves and water moving across U.S. 90 as the hours passed that morning. Pearce's move north to D'Iberville showed water moving along LeMoyne Boulevard and eventually Pensacola Beach.

The semitropical landscape of Aug. 28 gives way to a setting stark and devoid of vegetation, robbed of its midsummer hues. In many scenes, only the blue sky reminds us it's still color footage.

"After the storm, I needed to get my Grandma somewhere safe, then my dad and I started a relief effort. I had the camera with me, so I continued the project," Pearce said.

The idea to turn the footage into a movie, with proceeds earmarked to help his family rebuild their lives and Moran's Art Studio, came after he began putting together footage of his family to send in a nomination tape for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

Pearce uses music from local artists such as Rhythm and Rain, Tommy Miles and a particularly poignant song by Maj. Chad Gibson, called "Renew My Faith."

"Katrina Diary" is expected to be available by mid-April, Pearce said. The DVD will sell for $25 and can be ordered through redwirefilms.com or by calling Pearce at (228) 297-8911.
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City Editor Kate Magandy can be reached at 896-2344 or kmagandy@sunherald.com