It’s amazing how in a world filled with elitism, class warfare, and a society who based worth on wealth that the low class which is usually considered less than human, can survive longer than most of us. The poor, when pushed into survival, can survive for a vast amount of time, and never was it exemplified more than with the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
“Holdout” is a fantastic documentary short about a man named Jimmy who was almost forced out of his house by rescue services but insisted on staying in the sweltering heat, vicious conditions, and violent environment just to take care of his eighteen animals who would die without his care. Instead he allowed his eighty year old mother to be taken away while he kept watch of his house and pets.
Jimmy is a man of great resilience who keeps a generally calm attitude about his condition where he’s mainly confined to his house to prevent being taken away for his safety. But he remains in his home, and environment insistent on caring for a group of animals with no other homes or people would take them in. Through this time, he lost his long time boyfriend and ex-roommate and best friend who died a year later during the Katrina aftermath, and still wonders if it will ever end.
That’s the ultimate question many are still asking. Will this horrific catastrophe ever end? Brent Joseph’s documentary short is tasteful, void of manipulation and sensationalism and the man never probes deep into his life to garner false drama. He instead just wants us to see the backbone of the American working class doing what he does best: Surviving.
