By Jason Fitzroy Jeffers
There are few countries as ripe for cinematic exploration as Haiti. With a storied revolutionary history, rich culture, and startling natural beauty, it’s just waiting for its close-up. Sadly, the visions of Haiti most people are familiar with are news clips documenting the country’s turmoil, be it in the form of the 2010 earthquake, political upheaval or its widespread poverty.
Thankfully, the Haiti Film Festival returns this year to New York to present a more balanced and engaging look at the island and its diaspora. Now in its third edition, the biennial festival is expanding from a weekend of film in one venue to a full week of programming in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
The festival is an outgrowth of Haiti Cultural Exchange, a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating and supporting the culture and creativity of Haitians at home and in the diaspora.
“We saw a real need in the community to present Haitian art and culture,” says HCX executive director Régine Roumain, one of seven Haitian women who founded the New York-based organization in 2009. “While we had pretty strong social service organizations, there really wasn’t an organization to promote, present and develop Haitian arts and culture.”
Over the course of the week, the festival will feature the New York premieres of Rachelle Salnave’s La Belle Vie: The Good Life, which chronicles the Haitian-American director navigating through her homeland’s tangled class issues as she tries to reconnect with her roots, and Mario Delatour’s documentary Storming Papa Doc, which uses both first hand accounts and animation to recount a daring attempt to overthrow the notorious dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier during the early days of his regime.
The festival will also feature a screening of Haitian Corner, the 1988 breakout film from Haitian auteur Raoul Peck, and a new program of short films, which includes a handful from the noted film school Ciné Institute in Jacmel, Haiti.
Given how impregnable the international film festival circuit can be —especially to films outside of the mainstream narrative — the festival stands as a rare occasion to take in the work of so many different cinematic visions of Haiti, especially those of emerging directors.
“There isn’t a theme to the festival, but we did want to create an opportunity for first-time filmmakers to present their work,” says Roumain. “We’re also hoping that our new venue partners will bring in different audiences to the film festival to learn about Haitian art and Haitian culture.”
The Haiti Film Fest takes place from May 8th – 15th. For more information, visit: www.haiticulturalx.org/haitifilmfest.