As Hurricane Katrina roared through the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast, a nation sat and watched in disbelief.

One of America’s great cities sat in ruins, waters from canals and lakes and waterways filling the bowl-like city of New Orleans leaving little living space for those still in town.

Franklin Martin sat mesmerized. It was like a personal déjà vu.

Nearly 40 years earlier, Martin the child too experienced the devastation of a hurricane, leaving Metairie at the ripe young age of 6 after Hurricane Betsy blew through.

He knew there was a story to tell.

Now that story is being told as it forms the basis of Walking on Dead Fish, a documentary about East St. John High School, the displaced students it accepted and those who always were Wildcats.

On Friday at the AMC Elmwood Palace 20 Theater, the movie will finally make its debut, more than two weeks after it was originally supposed to premiere.

Narrated by Terry Bradshaw and executive produced by Reggie Bush, it’s a story about racial harmony and religious equality, about overcoming negatives with positives, about one of America’s greatest natural disasters and those it affected.

East St. John in St. John the Baptist Parish didn’t take on water. Instead, it took on more than 400 displaced students, of which 20 played football.

Football, however, is only the window into which the audience gets to view everything else.

“Football is just a minor part of this thing,” East St. John head coach Larry Dauterive said. “Football is the thing that galvanized the whole thing, a cross section of people putting this thing back together. Katrina tore them apart and football brought them back together.”

“As a former college athlete, I knew sports are human drama anyway,” said Martin, a former basketball player at Hofstra. “Football brings a community together.”

And can split it apart.

Martin follows the story of Stanley Jackson, a black running back who was set to start and be “the man.”  Johnny Owens was a white transfer student who was at Brother Martin prior to Katrina.

The storm forced Owens to relocate and he chose East St. John, the school closest to his LaPlace home.

Rivals at first, Jackson and Owens become fast friends by the end, Dauterive said.

“I think it’s phenomenal,” Dauterive said. “It’s got more of a message. Football is part of it. The season on the periphery is more important. We didn’t win the state championship but we bonded.”

Filming took place for nine months and Martin condensed the film down to 92 minutes. But while he thinks everyone should see the movie for the message it delivers – “It teaches racial tolerance and religious tolerance which in this country is needed,” – he learned a lot, too.

“I had a speech with the kids saying how much I had grown,” Martin said. “I came there to help y’all but y’all helped me.”

For Jackson, watching the it all in documentary form gave him a new perspective on just how much he grew during that tumultuous year.

“It really showed how I overcame something,” he said. “When he put it all together, it showed how I can be an example to young people.”

The premiere of the film was delayed due to Hurricane Gustav. Martin, in town for the opening, got a chance to feel the trepidation that New Orleanians now go through when a storm approaches.

“Fear. Total fear,” Martin said. “What really hit me was that LaPlace was supposed to be wiped out. I came after Katrina. Now I was living it.

“What it does is it showed me the stress of it maybe happening. It made me feel more a part of this.”