Many Americans might be surprised to hear that 70 percent of the country’s domestic oil and gas comes from the great state of Louisiana — and the region provides a large part of the seafood consumed across the nation.

But as New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu laments in Spike Lee’s “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” a follow-up to 2006 Hurricane Katrina-themed documentary “When the Levees Broke,” a dismissive perception exists.

“They think we’re crazy and ignorant,” he says, “and don’t know how to read or write,” he says.

Returning to document what has happened in the city after Katrina’s devastation, the city’s unfolding story is bookended by two momentous events; the historic Super Bowl win by the New Orleans Saints football team and the devastating British Petroleum oil spill, which killed 11 oil rig workers and, like the hurricane, has further decimated the economy and ecology of the area.

In between, Lee’s film crew (whose four-hour movie airs the first of its two parts Aug. 23 on HBO) uncover ambitious and controversial plans to reinvent the city — particularly addressing the issues of affordable housing for the primarily Black residents of the devastated Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard’s Parish.

The four large public housing developments have been shuttered, and rents have soared, with the average fair-market value of an apartment rising from $578 in 2005 to $881 in 2009. Only 38 percent of the private homes destroyed in the hurricane have been rebuilt.

“If God is Willing” also details the FBI investigations into allegations of brutality and cover-ups by the New Orleans Police Department that have resulted in indictments of current and former police officers in connection with a number of incidents.

Included is the notorious unprovoked shooting on Danzinger Bridge, captured by a NBC news crew, that killed an unarmed teenager and a severely mentally disabled man and wounded four others.

More than 300 people share their stories in the new documentary, including former La. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, current and former New Orleans mayors, Landrieu and Ray Nagin, historian Douglas Brinkley activists actors Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, Houston mayor Anisse Parker and community organizer Tanya Harris.

In addition, there are longtime New Orleans residents such as Phyllis Montana-Leblanc, Kimberly Polk and Shelton “Shakespeare” Alexander, whose compelling testimonies were told in “When the Levees Broke.”

Poignantly, we also see jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who composed the music for both documentaries, show his mother around the new home he built for her.

Nevertheless, in a two-hour press screening of parts 1 and 4 of the film, it is BP, a company that painted itself as a modern, environmentally sound oil company who dubbed themselves “Beyond Petroleum,” that comes in for blistering criticism.

In one scathing litany, a spoken word artist re-imagines what BP could stand for, including Bush Pimps, Beyond Predatory, and inducing much laughter, B**** Please.

“Yeah, the BP disaster definitely changed the structure of the film because the fourth hour is all about that,” said Lee, speaking to journalists in Los Angeles last week. “I think it’s very obvious that BP is very powerful. They can tell the U.S. government what to do; they can dictate to the Coast Guard and tell the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] what to do.

“There’s no other industry on this planet that makes more money than the oil and gas industry. They have money; they can buy whoever they wanna buy.”

Lee added: “I mean we’re in the midst of the greatest oil disaster in the history of the world and last week government scientists are saying the oil is gone. How? Where did all that oil go? BP is buying up experts, donating million dollars to university science departments.”

Asked whether he tried to get BP’s side on camera, Lee pointedly replied: “What could they say? The only thing BP could have done is lied on camera. It’s all about money and greed.

“The rig blew up because BP was three months behind and they were glossing over safety procedures because they were leasing the rig from Trans Ocean. Now 11 people are dead and instead of the half a million dollars they could have spent on blowout equipment Obama says you’ve gotta pay $20 billion or more. That’s beyond petroleum.”

And in a retort to ousted BP Chairman Tony Hayward, Lee said the one question he would have asked him is, “Did he get his life back?”

In maybe preventing such disasters in the future and looking to the future stewardship of the planet, Lee urged the Black community to “get up on this economy thing.”

“We live on this planet and just can’t leave it to White Americans,” he said. “We’ve got to stop driving these SUVs, start recycling and going green.”