FILMS

THIS HOUSE                   (CETTE MAISON)

Bridgeport, 2008. A teenage girl is found hanged in her room. While everything points to suicide, the autopsy report reveals something else. Ten years later, the director and cousin of the teenager examines the past causes and future consequences of this unsolved crime. Like an imagined biography, the film explores the relationship between the security of the living space and the violence that can jeopardize it.



THE FORGOTTEN OCCUPATION: JIM CROW GOES TO HAITI

The documentary opens with Alain reading a letter to his deceased grandfather. In that letter’s opening, the filmmaker recalls a morose conversation between his grandfather and another familiar member in which they bemoan the chronic troubles of their country, Haiti. They find themselves desperately hoping for an American intervention, seeing it as the only solution for their ravaged nation. Alain reminds his grandfather that the US had already occupied Haiti and only left it more impoverished. As the letter continues, the brutal decades of the Occupation come to light, betraying the complicated history of a people who, a century ago, looked to the US for guidance only to find themselves enmeshed in violent clashes of of race, culture and class, resulting in the wholesale theft of their homeland.
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BWA KAYIMAN

Set in 1791 at the start of the Haitian Revolution, a young woman is determined to break societal norms and join the enslaved men in fighting against Napoleon’s French army.


BRAVE

This documentary tells the story of how, when a Haitian voodoo priestess, a Mambo, dies, it is up to the children to celebrate the deity she served. It’s time for my mother to come home to perform this ritual in honor of my late grandmother.


ALL THE GAPS

Christina, a precocious 8-year-old, and her father, Alex, an “illegal” Haitian immigrant are not only father/daughter but business partners, if you hear Christina tell it. Both Christina’s and Alex’s livelihood revolve around food delivery gigs. However, things go awry when Alex loses their phone – and with it their tenuous ability to make money and connect with Victoria, Christina’s mother. When Alex takes his frustration out on her, Christina decides to take matters into her own hand – endangering them both.


(PROMO) 9TH ANNUAL HAITI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The 9th Annual Haiti International Film Festival is on August 17-18. The virtual film festival is a two day-long celebration of Haitian culture through film and art. This will be an epic event that you do not want to miss.
#HIFF2024