Unheard Voices: Cinema of Haiti

By: kuxa kanema

In the early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola, and in 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the island – Haiti. The French colony, based on forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of the wealthiest in the Caribbean, but only through the heavy importation of African slaves and considerable environmental degradation. In the late 18th century, Haiti’s nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint L’OUVERTURE and after a prolonged struggle, became the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804. Over three decades of dictatorship followed by military rule ended in 1990 when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president. Most of his term was usurped by a military takeover, but he was able to return to office in 1994 and oversee the installation of a close associate to the presidency in 1996. ARISTIDE won a second term as president in 2000, and took office early in 2001.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas as per the Human Development Index. On various occasions, it has experienced political violence throughout its history. Most recently, in February 2004, an armed rebellion forced the resignation and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and a provisional government took control with security provided by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Rene Preval, the current president, was elected in the Haitian general election, 2006. On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and devastated the capital city, Port-au-Prince. Reportedly more than 200,000 people were killed and buried later in mass graves, although the exact number was difficult to determine and the reported number fluctuates, plus a large number of people were made homeless. The Presidential palace, Parliament and many other important structures were destroyed, along with countless homes and businesses.

Despite such hardships, disasters and wars over the years Haiti has one of the most exciting and diverse cnational cinemas in the Caribbean. The earthquake has all but stopped the majority of Haiti film production and the number of Dvd and video sales has dived as many people have no home let alone a dvd player. Film has continued to play a part of the people’s lives though and portable cinemas were set up around Haiti. Often packed to the brim the screenings offer new hope and a form of escape from the nightmare that exists. Haitian filmakers have always turned adversity into to triumph and are facing their toughest challenge yet.

Cinema appeared in Haiti at almost the same time as in other countries. On December 14, 1899, Joseph Filippi, a representative of the Lumiere cinema, made the first public screening at the Petit Séminaire while visiting the island. The next day he filmed a fire in Port-au-Prince.
There are many films from the period of U.S. occupation (1915-1934) in the Library of Congress; these depict Marines and official ceremonies.
Other early movies filmed in Haiti, depicting health care, agriculture, and scenes of social life (particularly carnaval) may be found in the Library of Congress and the Pathé-Ciné Library. The first continuous film showings, after the visit of the Lumière brothers’ representative, took place starting in 1907 at the Petionville Grand Hotel, and then starting in 1914 at the Parisiana located in Port-au-Prince’s Champ de Mars. The Parisian was the first major cinema and theater (500 seats) which existed in the country. In 1933, the Eden Cinema opened in Cap-Haïtien. The Paramount in Port-au-Prince opened the following year, and the Rex Theater in 1935.

1.EDOUARD GUILBAUD
Alongside his brother Emmanuel, and the radio pioneer Ricardo Widmaier, Guibaud became Haiti’s first prominent filmmaker in the early fifties. He directed many newsreels ad documentaries involving politics and sport. In 1962 he directed Haiti’s first feature documentary I Am Beautiful ( Mais Moi, Je Suis Belle). The film focuses on Claudinette Fouchard the first Haitian to compete in Miss World.

I Am Beautiful, 1962

2.ARNOLD ANTONIN
In the seventies a new generation of Haitian directors emerged. These filmmakers including the documentarist Arnold Antonin were overtly political and opposed the strict, ruthless dictatorship led by “Papa doc” Francois Duvalier. In 1973 Antonin made the groundbreaking documentary Duvalier Accused, a scathing attack on the infamous dictator which led to his exile from the island. In 1974 Antonin made Haiti- the Road To Freedom sponsered by the magazine Cahiers du Cinema. The film catapulted Haitian film into the international market and remains one of the jewels in the country’s cinematic crown. Antonin has continued to make documentaries throughout the last decades and has also written extensively about Haitian cinema. In 2006 he made the fiction feature Le president a-t-il le sida about a singer who leads a wild life of sex and drugs falls in love for the first time in his life when he is diagnosed with aids. The film was well recieved and won an award at the Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival. Antonin most recently became head of who the Bolivar Arts Center in Port-Au-Prince, and faces many great challenges ahead.

Duvalier Accused, 1973
Haiti: Road To Freedom, 1974
Les Duvalier condamnés,1975
Art naïf et répression en Haïti,1975
Un tonton macoute peut-il être un poète?, 1980
Le droit à la parole,1981
Tiga, Creation and Passion, 2001
Piwouli and the Bandit, 2002
Le president a-t-il le sida, 2006

3.RAPHAEL STINES
Stines is perhaps Haiti’s most well known film maker and a pivotal leader in Haitian cinema. In 1976 Stine’s made the significant short film, I Am Going To Start Talking Now in his native creole language. The film was based on the Jean Cocteau play Le bel indifférent, a play that caused political unrest during the Jean Claude Duvalier era.In the eighties Stines’ turned to video like nearly all film makers in Haiti, and helped create a commerical popular cinema known as “Bellywood”. In 1989 he directed Kraze Lanfa with the popular actor "Jessifra, who is a hugely popular with the public for his imitation of the accent considered colorful by those who live in the north of Haiti. Videos of his theatrical works—filmed without any attention to shooting or editing—have found unbeatable success. Kraze Lanfa is a biting farce and indictment on the Duvalier regime but unfortunately the new despot leader Aristade was offended by the content and Jessfira had to go into hiding for fear of his life. This led many directors to steer clear of politics and focus on more commercial ventures. Stines also directs for television and made the popular tv film in 2001 Pè Toma and Bouqui nan Paradi (Bouki In Paradise) adapted from the novel by Frank Fouche. Unfortunately Stines passed away in 2007 and his influence is sorely missed.

I Am Going To Start Talking Now, 1976
Kraze Lanfe, 1989
Bouki In Paradise, 2001

4.RASSOUL LABUCHIN
Labuchin is best known for is film Anita O made in 1980 about a young servant girl working for a bourgeois family. The film highlights the major issues of child slavery which is all too prevelant in Haiti and was extremely popular in Haiti and met with approval from the Duvalier regime.

5.BOB LEMOINE
Bob Lemoine directed the only other major work during the Duvalier regime in 1977. Olivia about class divisions in Haiti.Lemoine has continued to work steadily in both video and film.

Olivia 1977
L’Automne en mille morceaux, 2009
Gabel
Henriette de St Marc

6.RAYMOND DELERME
Delerme is a popular director who studied cinema in the USA, Miami and on his return to Haiti directed the video production the Funeral (1985). The film starred the popular comedian Theodore Beaubraun and typified a new commercial style of filmmaking, shot cheaply on video with no artistic pretensions. This kind of cinema was made solely for a home audience and also a large number of expatriots in the USA. Delerme has a prolific output of varying quality.

2007

Ala Traka Pou Baba, 2009
Pitit Tig, 2007
Ti Fi Paste-a 2, 2007
Ala Traka Pou Baba, 2006
Pour L’Amour De Susie, 2002
Infidelite ,1999
La Femme de Mon Ami 1997
the Funeral 1985

7.REGINALD LUBIN
Then, in late 2001, Reginald Lubin released his digital-video feature La Peur D’aimer (The Fear of Loving), about a young woman’s unplanned pregnancy, using film-structure techniques — such as good cinematography and a strong script — known to global cinema but largely ignored and unused in Haitian cinema. The sensation it caused prompted other filmmakers to follow suit and spawned higher expectations in movie fans. That’s when, to many, digital video seemed like a godsend.

Fear of Loving, 2001

8.CARL LAFONTANT
Lafontant is an up and coming film director whose short Umbrella in 2002 was named by Raoul Peck as one of the best films in recent years. He also directed the docu-fiction film Haiti Coeur Battant in 2003 about a female Japanese musician encountering traditional Haitian music and culture. Lafontant has chosen to forge a distinctly independent career and so far has not succombed to the lure of the commercial video market. He also worked as Production manager for Laurent Cantet’s Haitian set French financed film Heading South

Umbrella, 2002
Haiti Coeur Battant, 2003

9.RAOUL PECK
At age 8, the Haitan-born Peck and his family fled the Duvalier dictatorship and joined his father in Léopoldville, Democratic Republic of the Congo. His father, H.B. Peck, had already taken a job there as professor of agriculture along with many Haitan professionals invited by the government to fill positions recently vacated by the departing Belgians. His mother would serve as secretary to mayors of Léopoldville for many years. The family resided in DRC for the next 24 years. Peck attended schools in the DRC (Léopoldville), in the United States (Brooklyn), and in France (Orléans), where he earned a baccalaureate, before studying industrial engineering and economics at Berlin University. He spent a year as a New York City taxi driver and worked (1980–85) as a journalist and photographer before attending and receiving a film degree (1988) from the German Film and Television Academy (DFFA) in West Berlin. Peck initially developed short experimental works and socio-political documentaries, before moving on to feature films. His feature L’Homme sur les quais (1993; The Man by the Shore) was the first Haitian film to be released in theatres in the United States. It was also selected for competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Peck served as Minister of Culture in the Haitan government of Prime Minister Rosny Smarth (1996–97), ultimately resigning his post along with the PM. He detailed his experiences in this position in a book, Monsieur Le Ministre, Jusqu’au Bout De La Patience. Peck has achieved his highest degree of international public attention for Lumumba, his 2000 feature film about Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the period around the independence of the Belgian Congo in June 1960. In 2009 he made his most ambitious film to date Moloch Tropical a reworking of Sokurov’s Moloch replacing Hitler with Duvalier. The film was extremely well recieved and won several international awards. Today, he divides his time between Voorhees, Camden County, New Jersey, USA; Paris, France; and Port-à-Piment, Haiti. He is president of La Fémis since January 10, 2010.

Haitian Corner, 1988
L’homme sur les quais, 1993
Desounen, 1994
Lumumba, 2000
Profit and Nothing But, 2001
Moloch Tropical, 2009

10.RICHARD SENECAL
An extremely popular commercial director. In 2003 he directed I Love You Anne and followed up with Cousines in 2006. He was also cinematographer and producer for Lubin’s film the Fear of Loving.

I Love You Anne, 2003
Cousines, 2006

OTHER FILM MAKERS TO LEAVE THEIR MARK

Jean Gardy Bien Aime, L’enquete Se Poursuit, 1994
Rachele Magloire, Children of the Coup, 2001
Laurence Magloire, Of Men and Gods, 2001
Michele Lemoine, Tchala Money and Dreams, 2002
Michelange Quay, Mange, ceci est mon corps, 2007

Charles Najman, Royal Bonbon, 2002, Haïti: la fin des chimères?… 2004
Willy Exume, Nou tout se refijye, 1983
Patricia Benoit, Se Met Ko, 1990
Richard Arens, Show Kola, 2006

FOREIGN FILM’S SET IN HAITI

White Zombie, Victor Halperin, USA, 1932
the Devil’s Daughter, Arthur Leonard, USA, 1939
Coumbite, Tomas Gutirrez-Alea, Cuba 1964

the Comedians, Phillip Glenville, USA 1967
Simparele, Humberto Solas, Cuba, 1974
Entre el cielo y la tierra, Manuel Octavio Gomez, Cuba 1989

the Agromonist, Jonathan Demme, USA 2002
the White Darkness, Richard Stanley,UK, 2002
Haiti Untitled, Jorgen Leth, Denmark, 1996
Dreamers, Jorgen Leth, Denmark, 2002

Heading South, Laurent Cantet, France, 2005
Ghosts of Site Soleil, Asger Leth, Denmark, 2006
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, Maya Deren, Cheryl Ito, USA 1985*