25681: Minsky: (report from the field) Film Festival Jakmel 2005 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "tminsky@ix.netcom.com" <tminsky@ix.netcom.com>

It is no small feat that Film Festival Jakmel 2005 is on now. It is also
not
without a consciousness about the rest of the country, but life
continues....Film
Festival Jakmel  2005 -In Full Swing-Attracts Thousands--- to View The
Widest Variety
of Films.


Tequila Minsky


The second edition of Film Festival Jakmel 2005 is something miraculous
given the
state of insecurity gripping Port-au-Prince. In Jacmel there is light and
for the coming
days-which began on July 9-it flickers on screen with an amazing array of
international and national films.

Opening night was on Jacmel's wharf constructed about 6 years ago with the
hope of
attracting tourist cruise ships. Not functioning  as a ship dock,  since
Saturday, July 9 it
has found  purpose, the site of  nightly outdoor screenings for  Film
Festival Jakmel
2005.  Jacmelians  are coming out in droves,  children  romp, neighbors
chat while
assembling to recorded music. Every night, a  short film followed by two
features
keeps the town and about until the wee hours.

Film Festival co-director and founder,  Patrick Boucard welcomed the crowd
opening
night and highlighted what was in store for Jacmelians for the following
week. Film
viewers would be able to   choose from over 100 award-winning films from 30
countries that are divided into categories:  Africa, France, Americas and
the
Caribbean, the Earth, Children's Films. 21 films   about Haiti
predominantly by Haitian
directors are in the   Cinema La Kay section. There are almost 30 films in
Haitian
kreyol, the rest in French.

This year the three daytime film venues screen films at 10am, 2am and
4:30pm.
Former movie theatre, Acropolys, long dormant has been reivived and seats
about
150, Concorde disco, the largest  including a balcony, has been harnessed
as a
daytime movie house seating over 500,   and Ecole de Musique is as last
year a
screening venue for 200.

Every night, films  projected outdoors at 8pm  at the wharf attract
thousands.   Wicker
chairs from local clubs provide comfortable seating in the fresh
sea-breezed air.
Children sit 20 deep in front and the night  crowd swells to about 4,000.
All
screenings are free of charge.

 Co-founder David Belle welcomed the second night crowd which doubled the
first
night's attendance and grew from there.  As word of mouth brings the town
out,
vendors follow and outside the entrance gate fritay, soda, and other snacks
can be
bought from timachann.

The opening night film, Cousines, by Haiti-based filmmaker Richard Senecal,
world
premiered  to over 2000 people, a  standing-room only crowd. Viewers were
not
disappointed feeling that the film showed things true in Haitian life.
Comments
continuously voiced that this film echoed the Haitian reality of economics
and
relationships. An outdoor concert kept the party going way past midnight.
Security
was plentiful but not oppressive.

In addition to the full schedule of screenings and similar to last year,
workshops
organized by Guetty Felin--dialogues with renowned filmmakers are taking
place
during the week in the shaded yard at the Alliance Francais.  Writer and
filmmaker
Dany Laferriere led Monday's workshop on adapting novels to cinema.
Participating
in the first all day workshops were over 50  Haitians interested in
film--high school
students, graduates, journalists, and university students, those
interestested in
becoming videographers, becoming actors, or those wanting to know how to
understand films.

Following filmmaker Laferriere presentation on the difference between
literature and
film-you have to SEE not tell about  --he presented an assignment. Write a
short story
with images that can be seen and offered two themes: a childhood
remembrance or a
story of the person being kidnapped and finding the weakest link in the
situation to
free themselves.  Organized into working clusters, each group wrote a story
together
and in the final two hours the stories were presented to the group at large
with
observation and comments by the filmmaker.  He emphasized that the
storyteller must
go personal and create details that are deep and familiar, that stories
must be
original, that are felt and can be seen.  Dany kept the group laughing with
his
observations.

Brooklyn resident, Nigerian filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu led the second full
day
workshop on the practice of filmmaking. Concentrating on selected scenes
from films,
the group analyzed camera work and editing. Lighting, framing, and filming
were
included with demonstrations of techniques; participants provided the
acting for
scenes that were videoed and then analyzed.

Other Film Festival workshops this week include, Jean-Claude Falmand-Barny
and
Janluc Stanislas, who traveled from Guadeloupe, on making a short film,
Abderrahmnae Sissako, casting and working with non-professional actors, and
Haiti's
own Raoul Peck, Le Cinema d'Auteur.

The Wharf screenings are the backbone of the Festival but by Day-3
residents in
Jacmel understand what the Festival is all about. Carrying the 65-page
program in
hand, and checking the signs around town with the screening schedule,
Jacmelians
are filling the theatres.  All the venues, including the 10am screenings
are full.  The
5:30pm  films are so popular that sometimes hundreds have not been able to
get in.



Preperations
http://www.jakmelfilm.ht/test3.mov

catalog
http://www.jakmelfilm.ht/catalog05fullweb.pdf

catalog
http://www.jakmelfilm.ht/programme2xpVSM.pdf





--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .