synopsis

The Second Line is the story of a family grieving the death of their daughter in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Our protagonist Big Moe Baptiste, his two sons Joseph and Little Moe, and his wife Sharon have suffered greatly from the hurricane's floodwaters, losing their belongings, home, and their daughter Sevrine. Big Moe Baptiste is a Second Line band leader, the backbone of the family, and the cultural touchstone of his community. Grieving for his daughter, Big Moe has become emotionally detached and is scrambling to meet mortgage deadlines and hold down his job.

Big Moe often walks through his Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood on the way to work as a groundskeeper, remembering the way things used to be and places that remind him of his daughter, who drowned while the family was trying to escape to the roof of the house. Four years later, after having an emotional breakdown on Sevrine's birthday, when she would have been 14, Big Moe and his family plant a tree in honor of her memory. It's an act celebrating the resilience of life and the rebirth of the entire city through the microcosm of this family's experience.