20950: nesbitft: Haitian Film Series: Cornell Univ. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nesbitft@muohio.edu

Throughout the month of April, Cornell Cinema, the Pentangle Film Program
and LASP & CUSLAR will present a wide range of films, both documentaries
and features, addressing various phases in Haiti's tumultuous history. The
films are being screened in conjunction with the mid-month conference, The
Haitian Revolution in Global Contexts: A Bicentennial Celebration, taking
place April 16 & 17. The conference is part of the Africana Studies and
Research Center's commemoration of the bi-centenary of the Haitian
Revolution, and is being presented in collaboration with the Society for
the Humanities, Departments of History, Anthropology, Comparative
Literature, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and Cornell Cinema. The
two-day international conference will address the significance and legacy
of the slave uprisings of Saint Domingue. The film series will include
Gillo Pontecorvo's follow-up film to The Battle of Algiers (screening
April 19), Burn! (1969), which was inspired C.L.R.James' book, The Black
Jacobins and treats the Haitian slave revolt as a metaphor for the Vietnam
war; Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck's Man by the Shore (1993, which is
set in Haiti in the early 60's during the outset of Francois Duvalier's
reign of terror; Jonathan Demme's Haiti Dreams of Democracy (1987), an
impressionistic portrait of the Caribbean island as it celebrated its
first anniversary of life without Baby Doc; Katherine Kean's chronicle of
the 1991 military coup, Rezistans (1997); Looking for Life (1999), a view
of Haiti's ruined local economy as seen through the lives of two women;
and Jonathan Demme's latest documentary, The Agronomist (2003), which
tells the true and moving story of Jean Dominique, a Haitian radio
journalist and human rights activist, who was assassinated in 2000. For
more information about the conference, please visit
http://www.asrc.cornell.edu/haiti_spring_2004.html.

Admission for the film series:
$6 general/$5 students & seniors/$4 CU grad students
unless otherwise noted

Pentangle presents
Looking for Life (Chercher la Vie)
Sunday, April 4 at 7:30>Uris Auditorium>Free
directed by Claudette Coulanges
A look at Haiti through the lives of two women, one who makes lunches for
factory workers in Port-au-Prince and the other who works in the factory
making t-shirts. Through the connection between these two women the film
shows the constant battle for survival that they lead together with other
women in Haiti. Going beyond this, however the film demonstrates the
extent to which the importation of North American goods has brought about
the collapse of Haitian regional production and ruined Haiti's economy.
1999>color>1 hr>Haiti/Germany

Burn!
Monday, April 5 at 7:00>Willard Straight Theatre
Tuesday, April 6 at 9:45> Willard Straight Theatre
directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
with Marlon Brando
The legend of Toussaint-Louverture, who led Haiti out of slavery in the
late eighteenth century, was revived by Trinidadian historian and
revolutionary, C.L.R. James, in a book he wrote about it, The Black
Jacobins. James' book inspired a new generation of black nationalists and
served as an inspiration for Quemada (released in the States with the
title Burn!), one of Marlon Brando's best films. The release of Quemada in
1968 coincided with the highpoint of the sixties radicalization. Director
Gillo Pontecorvo and co-writer Franco Solinas had previously collaborated
on The Battle of Algiers (1965), which dealt with the Algerian revolution
of 1961. Pontecorvo's film treats the Haitian slave revolt as a metaphor
for the Vietnam war and the leading character, Jose Delores, shares many
of the attributes of Che Guevara, who had been murdered in Bolivia one
year prior to the film's release.
1968>color>1 hr 52 mins>Italy/France

Haiti Dreams of Democracy
Thursday, April 8 at 5:00>Willard Straight Theatre>Free
directed by Jonathan Demme
Demme collaborated with Jo Mennell for this highly original
impressionistic report on the Caribbean island, as its six million
inhabitants celebrated the first anniversary of the overthrow of the
Duvalier regime on February, 1987. While outlining the country's economic
problems--80% of the people are unemployed, 87% have no access to
drinkable water and the average daily income is around $3--the program is
crammed with popular music and current songs that reflect the way in which
Haiti's distinctive culture--the most African of the Caribbean
islands--meets the political realities of this struggling unique country.
1988>color>50 mins>UK


LASP & CUSLAR present
Rezistans
Wednesday, April 14 at 8:00>Uris Auditorium>Free
directed by Katherine Kean
In Katherine Kean's chronicle of the 1991 military coup, Haitians speak
out about political events in their country following the rise of Father
Jean-Bertrand Aristide after Duvalier's exile, through the military coup
that sent Aristide, Haiti's first elected president, into exile, up to the
moment when the USA brought him back to his homeland and his
presidency--with strings attached. "Rezistans" features disturbing footage
and commentary from many Haitian resistance leaders, artists, writers, and
critics of US foreign policy, including Noam Chomsky.
1997>color>2 hrs 36 mins>Haiti

The Man by the Shore
Thursday, April 15 at 9:45>Willard Straight Theatre
directed by Raoul Peck
with Jennifer Zubar, Toto Bissainthe, Jean-Michel Martial
Set in Haiti in the early 60's during the outset of Francois Duvalier's
reign of terror, this film, written and directed by Raoul Peck, relates
the dreamlike yet tension-filled remembrances of Sarah, a little girl left
in Haiti by her fleeing ex-military father.
1996>color>1 hr 46 mins>Haiti

The Agronomist
Friday, April 23 at 7:15>Willard Straight Theatre
Saturday, April 24 at 5> Willard Straight Theatre>just $4
Tuesday, April 27 at 7:15> Willard Straight Theatre
directed by Jonathan Demme
with Jean Dominique and Michele Montas
The true story of Jean Leopold Dominique, the Haitian radio journalist and
human rights activist who operated Haiti's only free radio station and was
assassinated in 2000. Demme, long fascinated with Haitian culture,
history, and politics, began videotaping Dominique in 1993 during one of
the outspoken activist's self-imposed exiles - a result of Haiti's
continual and volatile political upheavals. An informative and emotional
testimonial to a remarkable man.
2003>color>1 hr 30 mins>USA

--
Mary Fessenden, Director, Cornell Cinema
104 Willard Straight Hall
Email: mkf2@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-3883
Fax: 607-255-9910
http://cinema.cornell.edu


--
Salah M. Hassan
Chair
Department of History of Art
Cornell University
G 35 Goldwin Smith Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-3201
Tel (607) 255-4905
Fax 607-255-0566
E-mail: sh40@cornell.edu
Africana Studies
Tel (607) 255-0528