Toronto’s Open Door has again joined with Emmy winner Hanson Hosein for Independent America: Rising from the Ruins, a sequel doc on the plight of business owners in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Budgeted at $400,000, it shot in HD over several weeks in May and June in the hurricane-ravaged city. It focuses on local business owners who returned following the destruction of 2005, while many chain retailers such as Starbucks have stalled. Hosein says the biggest challenge was to tell the story from a local perspective.

‘It was important to me that I didn’t parachute into the story as I did as a foreign correspondent, and generalize or make the wrong conclusions…I wanted [the people of New Orleans] to tell their own stories,’ says the former NBC newsman, who produces through his Seattle-based shingle HRH Media.

Ruins follows his Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop, in which Hosein put the spotlight on big-box retail wars in American communities. ‘We had such a great response to the first film – we were part of this new movement to buy local – and felt it was important to update that message with a relevant story,’ he says.

Open Door executive producer Tom Powers (Cracked Not Broken) negotiated a presale for Ruins to Super Channel. Hosein will begin post-production at Open Door next month, in time for the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The doc will be part of a showcase during an event in New Orleans. Ruins will also be shopped to Sundance and PBS.