A cultural film series presented by Kylti and the Haiti Renewal Alliance, and hosted by the Embassy of Haiti in Washington, D.C.
Touching on culture, politics and society, as they are often intertwined in Haiti, these documentaries will give you a glimpse of Haiti beyond the headlines.
Attendance is free A donation to organizing institutions is welcomed.
Refreshments and popcorn for purchase.
Thursday September 16, 2010 - 7:00pm
Jacques Roumain – Passion for a Country (2008)
Director: Arnold Antonin - Documentary - French, Kréyol, English subtitles.
WINNER Paul Robeson Award FESPACO 2009. Official selection, African Diaspora Film Festival 2008.
This exploration of Haitian society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries focuses on the tormented life of one of Haiti’s most important authors and prominent political figures, Jacques Roumain. In his perceptive writings, Roumain raised questions about the issues facing Haiti that remain relevant today.
Some of Jacques Roumain’s best writings were translated by the legendary African-American poet Langston Hughes. The question is raised: what legacy has Jacques Roumain left for the future of Haitian youth.
Thursday October 21, 2010 - 7:00pm
Mario Benjamin, a documentary (2008)
Directed by: Irène Lichtenstein - Written by Nasser Bakhti - Troubadour Films - Documentary - French with English subtitles.
In Haiti, his country, Mario Benjamin is the leader in contemporary art. Invited to take part in major events like the Venice Biennale, Kwangju, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, and at many exhibitions in the United States, he gained international stature. But who knows him outside the small circle of professionals? This film shows us the works of Mario Benjamin, both powerful and magical and disturbing, and traces his artistic journey by bringing us into his inner world. Around an exhibition that took place in Port-au-Prince in June 2008, this charismatic man gives us his thoughts on his work and the difficulty of being an artist in the Third World.
Thursday November 18, 2010 - 7:00pm
Atis-Rezistans | The Sculptors of Grand Rue
A film by Leah Gordon - Documentary
The Grand Rue Sculptors are a community of artists living in a downtown slum neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This is the newest art community to have emerged in the last ten years. They have produced art that reflects a heightened, Gibsonesque, Lo-Sci-Fi, dystopian view of their society, culture and religion, and have dragged Haitian art into the 21st century. Jean Hérard Céleur, André Eugène and Guyodo are at the core of the movement, which contains seven or eight other younger artists, all producing powerful sculptural works. Their work has opened entirely new vistas into the creative possibilities of the Vodou-inspired arts of Haiti. Their muscular sculptural collages of engine manifolds, computer entrails, TV sets, medical debris, skulls and discarded lumber transforms the detritus of a failing economy into deranged, post-apocalyptic totems.
Thursday December 16, 2010 - 7:00pm
Lift Up
A documentary film by Philip Knowlton and Huguens Jean - Produced by Kylti and The Molecule.
This documentary follows two young brothers, Clifford Muse and Huguens Jean, as they return to Haiti, the country of their birth. They have returned home to pay their final respects and fulfill a promise to their grandfather, André Torchon, who passed away shortly after the quake. The stories they tell in this documentary assign faces and souls among their fellow countrymen and before the world to the 200,000 dead as a result of the earthquake.
Clifford and Huguens bring with them a kite to memorialize and lift up the memory of their grandfather. Their memorial kite was flown at the 44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival in Washington, D.C. in March 2010.
A discussion with Huguens Jean, Philip Knowlton, and Andrew Bly will follow the screening
