An American Opera - ProfilesArchive

About Me

When EVERYONE believes they are doing RIGHT,
how can so much go WRONG?
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, America suffered the worst domesticated animal crisis in its history. Tens of thousands of house pets were left to perish in neighborhoods all across the gulf when their owners were forced to evacuate without them.
Tom McPhee went to Gonzales, Louisiana not knowing how he would help, just knowing he needed to help somehow. He volunteered at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center and by chance found himself spending the next four days taking picture after picture of thousands of house pets rescued from flooded New Orleans. Over the next 18 months Tom would document this unparalleled historic event as it unfolded, trying to understand where it all went wrong.
An American Opera is an unflinching, operatic vision of what happened to the people of New Orleans who were forced to evacuate without their beloved pets. Follow the story of the pets, vets, owners, officials, rescuers and adopters of animals as they all work through the chaos to do what is right only to discover not everyone is working toward the same goal!

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Movies:

Television:

Footage

Footage that Producer, Director Tom McPhee captured while at Lamar Dixon has been seen on Animal Planet, PBS's Nature series as well as the National Geographic channel. Click on the links below to learn more about each show.

Katrina's Animal Rescues

Animal Heroes Rescues & Reunions

Photographs

The photo galleries listed here contain over 4,000 images taken during three seperate trips to greater New Orleans, Louisiana.

Animal Photographs with intake ticket and number from Lamar Dixon September 9-19, 2005

Lamar Dixon Event Center September 9-19, 2005

Winn Dixie, ARNO, Muttshack November 11-18, 2005

Links

www.hsus.org

www.aspca.org

www.americanhumane.org

www.petfinder.com

www.ifaw.org

www.bestfrends.org

Yepitsme770's Katrina Pet Pics

Spiritsmom's Katrina Pet Pics

Lost Katrina Pets

AN AMERICAN OPERA'S AWARDS
Gold Remi
40th Annual WorldFest Independent Film Festival
1st Place Gold Camera
40th Annual US International Film and Video Festival

Heroes:

My Blog

An American Opera screening and panel set for St Louis Fest

An American Opera screening and panel discussion set for the 16th St. Louis International Film Festival.An American OperaDirector, Thomas McPhee, USA, 2007, 91 min.Friday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m., Webster ...
Posted by An American Opera on Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:25:00 PST

Heartbreaking and Inspirational ..... review by the FilmGuru

..> Reviewed by The FilmGuru www.filmguru.net Two years after hurricane Katrina, America is still asking questions about the federal response to the disaster that devastated New Orleans. In the m...
Posted by An American Opera on Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:09:00 PST

An American Opera Wins Best Doc Feature at 8th Sacramento Film & Music Festival

Tom, We had a great week and we wanted to let you know that An American Opera won the Best Documentary Feature jury award. We're still counting audience ballots and will post all of the results ...
Posted by An American Opera on Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:31:00 PST

Review Darren Seeley - ChokingOnPopcorn.com

There are many people who refer to their pet dogs and cats as "the other children", and with good reason. We give our pets names, we give them shelter, feed them, and as a result, the animals adore us...
Posted by An American Opera on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:54:00 PST

AN AMERICAN OPERA is Award Winning!

Attention!!!!!!We are very pleased to announce that AN AMERICAN OPERA is now an AWARD WINNER!The film has been awarded the Gold Remi by the 40th Annual WorldFest Houston!As well as the 1st Place Gold ...
Posted by An American Opera on Fri, 11 May 2007 11:49:00 PST

Review Jackson Free Press - Darren Schwindaman

No One Really KnowsAn American OperaTom McPhee, 93 min."An American Opera" is a documentary film chronicling the stories of pet rescuers in New Orleans immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The foo...
Posted by An American Opera on Fri, 30 Mar 2007 01:15:00 PST

Review Sarah Ledbetter of WKNO Radio

When I first heard about Tom McPhee's film, An American Opera, I felt conflicted. On the one hand, I was relieved someone had taken a close look at the domesticated animal crisis following Hurricane K...
Posted by An American Opera on Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:18:00 PST

AN AMERICAN OPERA Radio Interviews

For a little more detail about AN AMERICAN OPERA, check out this radio interview with our Producer Tom McPhee! http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wkno/news.newsmain?action= article&ARTICLE_ID=105756...
Posted by An American Opera on Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:47:00 PST

Review Susan Geer

".... I want to say I have seen and purchased Pasado Rescue Hurricane Katrina, Katrina's Animal Rescue & Dark Water Rising. I think each movie as they were released got better and better. &n...
Posted by An American Opera on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 07:47:00 PST

Review Sandra Bauer

An American Opera is told from the perspective of the protagonist, Michigan photographer/filmmaker Thomas McPhee. With his companion, McPhee traveled to Louisiana to find a way to help in Katrina's de...
Posted by An American Opera on Sat, 24 Feb 2007 12:33:00 PST