Haiti at 200

LA 377: Haiti: The First Two Hundred Years

Most people in the United States may have heard of Haiti this year because of the events that triggered the resignation and exile of President Aristide, but the relationship of this impoverished but culturally rich country to the U.S. is long and complex. Haiti has been the invisible among the invisible: a small part of an island in the Caribbean, a black population facing discrimination by its neighbor, the Dominican Republic. It has a national identity that rests on African roots, but a geographical location that situates it within the Caribbean and Latin America. The course we have planned as a team-taught colloquium will look at Haiti's history and politics, artistic production, literature, environment and health issues. It will include participation in a mini film festival and visits by Haitian and Haitian-American poets and novelists, to explore the complexities of Haiti's identity politics and its relationships to the hemispheric forces that have shaped the nation over the past 200 years. Wednesday (biweekly), starting September 8, Ladd 307, 7-9p. For more information contact Prof. Viviana Rangil.

The Saratoga Film Festival:
HAITI: MOVING IMAGES
Thursday, 9/30-Sunday, 10/3

The Latin American Studies Minor at Skidmore College, in collaboration with the Saratoga Film Forum, will bring to Saratoga Springs a selection of cinematic works about Haiti. The Film Festival is designed to commemorate the bicentennial of Haiti's independence. Given the current political crisis and natural disaster devastating the island, the Film Festival is a prime opportunity for us to learn more about the country and its complexities. This Festival highlights recent cinematic releases from Haiti, as well as films produced by Haitians in diaspora and non-Haitian filmmakers, represented through the works of Raoul Peck, Haiti's most prominent filmmaker (Lumumba, The Man on the Shore) and Jonathan Demme (The Agronomist, The Bourne Supremacy) to name a few. Opening with a showing of The Agronomist on Thursday, 9/30, several Festival screenings will be followed by panel discussions. Movies will be screened in the Tang Teaching Museum (Skidmore College) or the Film Forum's home, the Saratoga Arts Center (downtown Saratoga Springs). Panels will feature Michele Stephenson, filmmaker, human rights activist and organizer of Haiti on Film at NYU, film directors, as well as Capital District academics, activists and/or film critics. All screenings at Skidmore are free and open to the public; there will be a charge for screenings held off campus for non-Skidmore students. For more details about the festival, including schedule, please see the Saratoga Film Festival webpage.

Films from Haiti
Of Men and Gods (Des Hommes et Dieux) by Anne Lescot and Laurence Magloire - 52 mins. 2002 Shot entirely in Haiti, this documentary explores the lifestyles of homosexuals and queer people involved in Voudou. Through Voudou, some homosexual Haitians find an explanation to their sexuality, and regard themselves as "children" of the gods and therefore protected. A frank look at a largely unexplored area, the film examines the daily existence of several Haitian men who are openly gay and their relationship to the Voudou religion. Creole with English subtitles.
(Tang)
Roussan Camille 40 ans après by Mario Delatour - 52 mins. 2003
This 52-minute biography documentary portrays Haiti in the 1930s and the life of famed Haitian poet, Roussan Camille. The film had its World Premiere at Montreal's "Vues d'Afrique" this past April 2003. The film is also an homage to Port-au-Prince in its heyday. Creole and French with English subtitles. (Tang)
Bonjour la Rézoné by Elsie Haas and Nixon Amilcar - 56 mins. 2004, Haiti/France
Documentary that uses the rituals of preparing the traditional Haitian New Year's Day "soupe giraumou" (squash soup) to chronicle the experiences of a group of expatriate Haitians living in Paris. (Tang)
Children Of Shadows by Karin Kramer - 54 mins.
In Haiti, dire economic circumstances often require parents to give away their children-sometimes as young as four years old-to other families to work as unpaid domestic servants, or slaves. The affecting documentary Children of Shadows follows these children (called restavek children) as they go through the endless daily cycle of cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, shopping, and running errands. In a series of heartbreaking interviews, the children speak openly about the lives they are forced to lead, while their “aunts” (their adoptive caretakers) speak openly and proudly of the backbreaking labor their restaveks do for them. Interviews with peasant families shed light on the appalling conditions that force these parents to give away their children. Children of Shadows is narrated entirely by the people themselves in their native Creole (with English subtitles).
Diaspora Films
Black Soul (Âme Noire) by Martine Chartrand - 9 mins. 2003 (Canada)
Condensing several hundred years of Black history into a brief ten minutes, Black Soul is an impressionistic, often beautiful, and somewhat fragmented animated view of the African-American and African-Canadian experience. This unique short presents an animated whirlwind tour that incorporates images of African ancestry, the iniquities of slavery and discrimination, and a celebration of creativity. Winner of the Golden Bear Award for best short film at the Berlin Film Festival and Best Animation film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. (Tang)
E Pluribus Unum by Maxence Denis - 25 mins. 2001 (France)
This energetic documentary celebrates two contemporary sculptors, André and Céleur. Inspired by Vodou and Haitian history, they use recycled materials to transform an area of Port-au-Prince into an informal museum and vibrant workshop. The soundtrack is composed of loops from traditional Voudou songs mixed with ambient sounds. Creole with English subtitles. (Tang)
Les Chemins de la Memoire by Frantz Voltaire - 60 mins. 2002 (France) Translated as "The Roads of Memory" this one-hour documentary recounts Haiti's history from the early 1900s to the Duvalier era. Creole and French with English subtitles. (Tang)
Foreign Films on Haiti
The Agronomist by Jonathan Demme - 120 mins. 2003 (US)
The Agronomist is a celebration of an extraordinary man - journalist, broadcaster and human rights activist Jean Dominique - and his tireless fight against injustice and oppression. The story documents Dominique's uncompromising crusade for liberty and democracy in the vibrant country of Haiti. Demme shot many hours of footage with Dominique over a period of fifteen years. Their joint project was tragically cut short in April 2000 when, in the turmoil leading up to elections in Haiti, Jean Dominique was assassinated outside his radio station. In Creole, French and English with English subtitles. (Saratoga Arts Center)
L'Homme Sur les Quais/The Man on the Shore, by Raoul Peck , 105 mins, 1993, France/Canada
A political drama set in Haiti in the 1960s during the reign of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, The Man On the Shore is told through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl (and narrated by her older self looking back some 30 years later). Through Sarah, the horrors of political oppression and tyranny are depicted not as dispassionate archival documentary footage, but by their impact on one particular family. As the story unfolds, we learn that Sarah (Jennifer Zubar) and her two sisters have been sent to live with their grandmother after their father-a military officer too weak to fight Duvalier's henchmen (the Tontons Macoutes)-is forced to flee the country with his wife. The girls seek shelter in a local convent, but even that holy place is no sanctuary from Janvier (Jean-Michel Martial), the vicious and corrupt leader of the local Tonton militia. (Saratoga Arts Center)
The Keeper by Joe Brewster - 90 mins. 1995 (US)
Disillusioned with the justice system and those who enter it, Paul a corrections officer at the Brooklyn House of Detention, isn't sure what he believes in anymore. His life is forever changed when he meets Jean Baptiste, a Haitian immigrant imprisoned for a crime he swears he did not commit. (Saratoga Arts Center)
The Comedians by Peter Glenville, 150 mins, 1967 (US/France
With a screenplay adapted by Graham Greene (from his own novel), and set in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during the reign of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, The Comedians stars Richard Burton as Brown, a hotel owner trying to find a buyer for his hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Paul Ford and Lillian Gish) are a pair of hotel guests who want to open a vegetarian center in Haiti. Major Jones (Alec Guinness) is an arms dealer claiming a military background who is put in jail almost immediately upon entering the country. Temporarily freed, Jones seeks asylum in the embassy of South African ambassador Pineda and his wife (Peter Ustinov and Elizabeth Taylor). When Jones threatens to interfere in an affair that Brown is having with the ambassador’s wife, Brown taunts Jones into boasting that he could overthrow the government—which he then sets out to do. Not unexpectedly, he is killed and, feeling contrite, Brown assembles a ragtag band of rebels who hope to overthrow the Tontons Macoutes. James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Raymond St. Jacques, and Roscoe Lee Browne round out the cast. (Saratoga Arts Center)

HAITI IN WORDS
Poetry and Reading Presentations/Workshops

Lenelle Moise
Friday, September 17, 2004
7pm, Skidmore Dance Theater

Lenelle Moise is the 2003 winner of the New World Theater Poetry Slam and the 2000 Ithaca, New York Grand Poetry Slam. Moise is a touring member of the Hen Foundation as well as the People’s Poetry Theatre collective. Her writing is featured in In Our Own Words: Students' Perspectives on Schools, and in two chapbooks, Repeat 7 Times and Womb-Words Thirsting. Moise mixes womanist Vodou jazz, queer theory hip-hop and improvisational dance to create personal/political poems about sexuality, biculturalism and other identity markers.
Her plays include: The Many Faces of Nia, a two-act comedy about stereotypes and Black-Jewish relations; Spilling Venus, Pandora's “coming out” story; Cornered in the Dark, a choreopoem about the psychological aftermath of sexual assault; and Lesbians Talking About RICE!, about the racial and sexual tensions between women. Moise received an MFA in Playwriting from Smith College and is a recipient of the James Baldwin Memorial Award in Playwriting.
Moise will meet with students and perform at Skidmore College.

Ella Turenne
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
7pm, Skidmore Intercultural Center

New York City-based poet and artist Ella Turenne edited a book of poetry and art by Haitian and Haitian diaspora artists to mark the 200th anniversary of Haiti’s independence. The book, revolution/revolisyon/ révolution 1804-2004: An Artistic Commemoration of the Haitian Revolution, features introductions by novelists Edwidge Danticat, Cauvin Paul and Max Manigat and includes poetry in English, Haitian Kréyol, and French. Turenne is an Arts & Culture reporter for the Haitian Times. Turenee will conduct an interactive and audience participatory workshop based on the contents of revolution/revolisyon/revolution at Skidmore College.

Danielle Georges
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
7pm, Skidmore Intercultural Center

Danielle Legros Georges is a poet and translator who was born in Haiti and raised in the United States. Her poetry and articles have appeared in numerous magazines, including MaComère, the American Poetry Review, The Caribbean Writer, The Christian Science Monitor, and Compost Magazine. Georges has received numerous awards including the 1998-1999 LEF Foundation Fellowship; a Barbara Deming Fund Grant; a MacDowell Fellowship; and a Fannie Lou Hamer Award. Georges’ current book of poetry, Maroon, explores her Haitian heritage and spins a tale of immigrant life in the United States.
Georges is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Creative Art in Learning at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.
Georges will meet with students and read from Maroon and her others works

Marilene Phipps
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
7pm, Skidmore Intercultural Center

Marilene Phipps is a painter and a writer. In 1993 she won the Grolier Prize for poetry and her first book of poems, Crossroads and Unholy Water, won the 1999 Crab Orchard Review Poetry Prize. Phipps has been a Guggenheim and Harvard University Bunting Institute Fellow. Phipps short stories collection was selected as part of the Best American Short Stories in 2003. Her richly textured and vibrantly colored paintings have been exhibited in major gallery and museum shows in Haiti, the United States, and Europe.
Phipps will meet with students and read.