By Nadia Zaffar – November 19, 2011

Harry Shearer, maker of the film “The Big Uneasy,” told a crowd of communicators at NCA that he made the film because he was upset that America did not know the truth about flooding in New Orleans.

“The film was made in a moment of anger,” said Shearer over Skype.

Shearer said he knew he had to do something when a TV anchor told him “focusing on human stories was more compelling” rather than investigate the flooding. “The Big Uneasy“ was meant to be a “correction” for the news media.

“The movie implicitly, not explicitly, is a critique of the media for failing to tell this story. The guy from “The Simpsons“ had to come and tell the story.”

Harry Shearer is an actor and documentary maker well known for his role in “This is Spinal Tap” and his voice behind characters in the animation series “The Simpsons.”

Shearer was certainly well known and well loved in the Sheraton room where a panel was held on his documentary “The Big Uneasy.” A panel of professors and writers met to discuss the rhetoric of new political documentary films. But it quickly turned into a Q&A session with Shearer.

“I have a rule: Don’t talk too much in a room where Harry Shearer can be seen and heard,” said Brian Snee (SUNY).

Most panelists asked Shearer about the audience for his film, quoting the high degree of technical knowledge presented in the film.

“The audience was every set of eyeballs in America. That was the objective,” said Shearer. “I fell short by a few million eyeballs.”

Shearer said he saw nothing wrong with a film that required more out of its audience, maybe even multiple viewings. He said he also did not want to include a “call for action” at the end of the film.

“I did not want to let the people off the hook that make this one call and then they can go back to watching ‘Entertainment Tonight.’”

Shearer said that he has some training as a journalist when he was young and that’s what drew him to making this film.

“The point of journalism is the 5 Ws. Who, What, When, Where and Why. And they left out the Why,” he said.

Story originally appeared on www.emersonatnca.com here