The Church on Dauphine Street.

Ann Hedreen and Rustin Thompson have subtitled their film "One Katrina Story," presumably to reflect their modest resolve to shed light on a particular face of a national tragedy as much as to signal their eschewal of the wrenching, epic aspirations of Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke. In contrast to that film, The Church on Dauphine Street is a story about a local resurrection: the difficult process of rebuilding Blessed Selos, a church in New Orlean's Upper Ninth Ward that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina, as were the lives of many in its trilingual parish whose members include the city's deaf community and Spanish-speaking immigrants. The majority of the film belongs to Blessed Selos's Father Joseph Benson and to Arthine Vicks, an ex-Marine and two-time "runaway bride" who leads the deaf choir and is Jill-of-all-trades. But Hedreen and Thompson also chart the unlikely and inspiring encounters on which the church's restoration depends. Volunteers from Seattle led by businessman lack van Hartesvelt, skilled union workers from New Orleans, and members of the congregation who wrestle with uncertain futures all cross paths at Blessed Selos. The documentary is at its most luminous when they tell their stories, when Vicks recounts the miraculous rescue of precious church relics from a fire, of when church members silently sign hymns at the deaf choir practice. Yet the film is frustratingly overnarrated and overscored. The filmmakers' apologies for the community's belief in miracles seem unwarranted, and sometimes the film's honesty seems formulaic rather than candid. In these moments, Dauphine Street is too restrained to allow the fears and the faith of its subjects to become palpable. (Distributed by White Noise Productions, 5454 57th Avenue S., Seattle, WA 98118, telephone [phone], www.whitenoisepreductions.com, DVDs available for purchase at www.onekatrinafilm.com)