14036: (Arthur) Haitian films article from The Haitian Times (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

‘Barikad’ Explores Forbidden Love in Haitian Society

By Anna Wardenburg-Ferdinand
Haitian Times Staff - 4 December 2002

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Movie theaters, usually filled with Hollywood leftovers
translated into French, seem to be featuring a new cast. Films made in Haiti
by Haitians and for Haitians are proliferating on billboards throughout the
capital, with four films released this year.

One such film, "Barikad," released last week, proves that Haiti can hold its
own in the film world. The film explores a prevalent subject in the Haitian
culture. Most well-off people in Haiti have people who wash their clothes,
make their food, shop in the markets, clean, iron and so on. Usually from the
popular neighborhoods or the countryside, these laborers earn piddling wages
for endless work.

In "Barikad," Odenie has been introduced to the home of a wealthy family with
an intellectual father who talks about social rights while sending his
ill-stricken maid, Sonia, to get better with her family in the countryside.

Odenie, a full-size beauty, takes the job so Sonia not lose it. After taking
over the daily household duties, a small spark ignites between her and
Thierry, the son of the matron mother, and passive father, with a beautiful
sister deeply entrenched in the class in which she was born too.

The spark, over the course of the 111-minute movie, becomes a burning ember
when the mother goes to the United States for medical reasons. The chemistry
between actors Fabienne Colas and Tibert Handy flows with the pace of the
script, developing with each short encounter allowed two people of their
statuses.

That the love is there is no question. That two people from different worlds
cannot turn that love into a life together seems to be the message, though
the filmmakers said they left that open for reflection.

"It is a taboo subject: the problem of relations between a girl working at
the house and the child of the head of the house. We know that the subject
wasn’t very commercial, but we had something we wanted to say," said Richard
Senecal, director and producer of the film. "It has a lot of messages, and
people can ask themselves a lot of questions."

The film moves with ease between the two worlds, one on the top of a hill in
a beautiful house. Odenie is from the provinces, but her aunt lives across
the great ravine on the hills on the other side.

Some scenes address the realities of Haitian daily life, its subtleties and
its language that permits us to enter in the truth of the situation. At the 2
p.m. showing of "Barikad" at the Imperial theater on Delmas 19, moviegoers
laughed and empathized with characters.

The pace of the action is slow, letting the story slowly develop. The actors
switch between French and Creole, French used mostly in talking to their
parents at the breakfast table where bananas and juice are served with their
morning dish of spaghetti.

While most of the action takes place in the magnificent home, a hazy shot
over the plants in their yard turns clear as we see the hundreds of clustered
houses across the divide become sharp. We are now in the house of Odenie’s
aunt who once worked for the family and raised the boy with whom Odenie has
fallen in love.

"People will think you are after his money, his name," the aunt said.
But with a hard-to-control love, the two share a kiss before class and family
issues come between them, sending Odenie back to her mother’s house and
Thierry to study abroad.

Drama Outside the Theatre
The large screen and plush seats at the imperial are similar with most
movie-going experience, save for the theater’s policy of not allowing the
popcorn they sell in the lobby in their screening rooms.

Haitian film took a while to reach the mainstream Haitian culture that
frequents movie theaters, Senecal said.

He said Haitian film during the 1970s and early 1980s was more the domain of
what he calls intellectual films that weren’t available to the larger
population. Then, during the 1980s, when the move from the countryside to the
capital brought the swell of the population, filmmakers began using video,
greatly cutting the cost of production.

"Duvalier fell during that time. There were more people in the city and the
market began to evolve. When those [video] films were shown it was an event,
the public always responded," said Senecal, sitting in the offices of his
video production company, Imagine.

Moviegoers accepted Haitian films with all their imperfections, the
director-producer said.

Senecal credits La Fleur Deny for raising the standard of low-budget Haitian
films.
"With La Fleur Deny, people saw they could actually do good quality films,
and Haitian film was taken to a new level," Senecal said.

In the past two years, more Haitian films have been appearing on the screen.
But the market is limited, Senecal said.

"Haitian cinema doesn’t have a market. In Haiti, we have about 100,000 people
that can go to the movies. Of those 100,000 people, when you take out the
money from the distributor and the owner of the theater, what is left is
small and in gourdes, and the gourdes is devaluating," he said.
Senecal says there is a monopoly in Port-au-Prince cinema that he believes
allows movie houses to take 50 percent of the box office money. Adding the
cost of the distributor and the 10 percent that goes to the government,
Senecal is left with little revenue.

"There is no competition, if you don’t agree, that’s your problem. If I come
out with a small percentage, I come out with a lot," he said.

The producer said that finding financing in the country is hard because most
businesses always ask for something in return.

"The problem we found was that if they were going to give you $1,000, $2,000,
they asked for publicity within the film, like showing their bank. These were
things that in ‘Barikad’ would have ruined the story. We wanted it to stay
very simple. So we looked to other sources," said the first time
director-producer.

Senecal said the cost of production, $50,000 (U.S.), was partly financed
through the Franco Haitian Television Support Group, which provides technical
training to Haitian filmmakers.

While making a film in Haiti does bring in money, it’s not enough. Senecal
said efforts to bring Haitian films to Haitian communities outside the
country have always met with problems.

There are no organized Haitian theaters in the United States, and Senecal
said few mainstream theaters would play the films.

Senecal wants to take "Barikad" to the international festival level where
someone might want to buy the film, a way he said that could make making
films in Haiti more profitable.

"There are films that have been made here lately that can be taken to
festivals. I don’t mean Cannes . . . but small festivals where you could
maybe sell your film. Maybe a television station would want to buy it, for
$15,000 or $20,000, which isn’t a huge cost abroad but, for us here, would be
a big thing. We need to succeed in creating films that can leave Haiti, and
with ‘Barikad’ we are going to try," he said.



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