30708: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti Goes Hollywood (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 6 (AP) -- Even in hard times, Haitians go to the
movies. Now they're also making them in record numbers -- about 10 feature
films a year -- rivaling Cuba as the Caribbean's biggest movie producer and
often outselling better-financed imports.
   The ultimate dream? To transform the impoverished, politically volatile
country of 8 million into a cinema powerhouse -- Haitiwood -- following the
lead of India and Nigeria.
   While most Haitian industries are stagnant, show business is booming,
driven by plunging production costs and an appetite among Haitians at home
and abroad for movies shot in their native Haitian Creole.
   "Movies are becoming Haiti's most popular art form after music," said
Arnold Antonin, a director and president of the Haitian Filmmakers
Association.
   He estimates Haitian film production has risen 300 percent in the last
five years, including an explosion in straight-to-DVD releases shot in
Haitian immigrant communities in the U.S.
   The country's first Creole-language film was released in 1980 -- Rassoul
Labuchin's "Anita," about a peasant girl who becomes a servant for a
wealthy family.
   Today Haiti still does not have a national film commission to finance
local production. But cameras have continued to roll, even after a bloody
2004 revolt that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and plunged the
country into tumult.
   "Despite all the political chaos and economic problems, Haitian cinema
keeps growing," said Richard Senecal, another Haitian director whose 2006
film "Cousins" was featured in several international film festivals.
   The arrival of inexpensive digital video cameras and editing equipment
opened the door to budding Haitian filmmakers, lowering production cost
from hundreds of thousands of dollars or more to about $40,000 -- money
that typically comes from private sponsors or local investors who receive a
percentage of the film's earnings.
   While lacking technical polish, Haitian films are exploring weighty
social issues.
   Last year's hit "The President Has AIDS" explored the virus's stigma in
Haitian society, while "Cousins" dealt with prostitution.
   There also are love stories inspired by soap operas.
   Haitians can't get enough, shelling out $2.70 per ticket -- about twice
what most Haitians earn in a day -- at decaying cineplexes in the capital
or ramshackle theaters in the countryside.
   A small number of Haitian films have received limited releases in U.S.
theaters, but most people rent them in stores or buy pirated copies in a
thriving underground market in Haitian-American communities in the United
States.
   "I like the fact that they use Haitian actors. They're very elegant in
the use of our language," said Charles Roudo, a 53-year-old janitor at
Capitol Theater in downtown Port-au-Prince.
   But some are not so optimistic about the industry's future. Piracy robs
filmmakers of earnings. And the Haitian Filmmakers Association is calling
for improved professional standards, warning that bad lighting and stiff
acting will eventually turn off moviegoers.
   "Unless we start making better movies technically ... Haiti's film
industry could die in the womb," said Antonin, who would like to see a film
school open in Haiti to train the next generation of filmmakers. "We have
the talent, we just needs the tools."
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