Summary
Netflix documentary After Maria serves as a strong example of the lack of human care that is shown to citizens following on from Hurricane Maria.
After Maria is a Netflix short documentary giving its audience the cold hard truth that we do not want to know in our own safe homes: we are letting the world down. Shackled by processes and funding, there is a shocking lack of humanity. And it’s not just Hurricane Maria where we let ourselves down, but this short feature demonstrates the unsettling pain families have to go through after a tragic event outside of human control.
After Maria is not meant to make the audience feel guilty, but you leave it with a downtrodden heart when you see these families perilously stuck with nowhere to go. While after the disaster, Peurto Ricans who fled to New York were given assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it was inhumanely based on a timetable. Their social, cultural and living situation was not given consideration at all. Their support in a hotel has an expiration date.
Netflix short documentary After Maria demonstrates that we need to rid financial algorithms, funding policies and processes when it comes to these disasters. Not entirely, there needs to be some scope, but if a family with children have no choice but to battle on the streets, then the assistance provided by the government becomes void. There’s uncomfortable footage showing Donald Trump praising the efforts of aid post-Hurricane Maria, but journalism tells us that the support is not all what was sold by the President.
And I get it. After Maria is one case study, showing two families going through this shocking ordeal in one isolated scenario, and some will likely argue that the short feature does not represent the bigger picture. That will always be a flaw in documentaries like this one; however, undoubtedly, the mantra should be that this shouldn’t even be happening at all? Surely post-Hurricane aid should be a human effort to help these people and not a robotic experience every time you pick up the phone to FEMA or talk to a worker at the homeless shelter.
Netflix short documentary After Maria offers no solution to the cause, or any light at the end of the tunnel for the people followed, which highlights the fact that there is no answer yet to families torn apart post-Hurricane Maria. After Maria is an undesirable demonstration of the shocking lack of humanity in our world today.
