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[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(The Guardian, UK, 13 July 07)


Brief encounters

Rude recollection of Port-au-Prince

By Duncan Campbell



If your main cinematic reference for Haiti is The Comedians, the 1967
Richard Burton and Liz Taylor vehicle adapted from Graham Greene's book,
then Ghosts of Cité Soleil, a documentary set in the roughest slums of
Port-au-Prince, may come as a rude shock.

Made by Asger Leth, the 36-year-old son of the film-maker and former Danish
consul to Haiti, Jorgen Leth, it comes to the screen trailing praise for
its "raw", "visceral" and "no-holds-barred" style.

It has also attracted criticism from some quarters for being
"exploitative", "neo-colonialist" and just confused. Certainly, if you are
looking for a sober documentary that explains what has been happening in
this unhappy country in the period from the Duvalier dictatorships to the
ousting of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, Ghosts ain't
it. Nor did Leth ever intend it to be.

The ghosts are the chimères, or gangs, that run Cité Soleil, the notorious
slum district of Port-au-Prince. The film, made at the time of Aristide's
forced exile, introduces us to two gang leaders: the handsome, young and
doomed brothers, 2Pac and Bily. There is also a young and attractive French
aid worker, Eleonore "Lele" Senlis, who ends up sleeping with one of the
brothers. Less controversially, there is a soundtrack from the film's
Haitian co-producer, Wyclef Jean.

Cité Soleil was and is a dangerous place in which to film (shoot seems an
inappropriate word). Although the crew were apparently operating under the
protection of the brothers, the film communicates much of the baleful
nature of life in this corner of a country that has been dealt one of the
worst hands in the world.

> From his home in Denmark, Leth says it was never his intention to make a
conventional documentary on Haiti. "I'm not a journalist and I don't want
to be a news documentary-maker," he says. "I'm more of a storyteller. I
didn't want to get swallowed up by the news."

He was also aware that the role played by Lele would provoke controversy -
as indeed it has. "I knew it would be a heated issue. Fifty per cent love
her and 50% hate her and that's cool," he says. "It's a documentary and she
was there and she was part of their life. She risked her life to do
something good and I'm not going to judge ... I think she saved a lot of
lives. She is what she is." According to Leth, Lele now lives between
France and Russia and considers that part of her life over.

Leth also says he has been criticised for not being more condemnatory of
the gun-toting brothers. "That's bullshit," he argues. "That's old-school
documentary-making. They are thugs and killers but they are also human.
They are not the disease, they are the symptom of what is going on in
Haiti."

Too many documentaries, he says, are made for people who already know the
arguments. What he likes about Michael Moore, for instance, is that he
takes the story to people who would not bother to see a conventional
documentary. "I wanted to get that edge-of-the-seat feel to it," Leth says.

Having drawn comparisons with City of God, Ghosts is also being talked of
as a potential Hollywood vehicle. Leth, who is currently working on an
American feature film about an unspecified subject, says that there has
been some interest from the studios - although he himself would not be
interested in remaking his documentary as a feature. "I've made my film,"
he says.

In the meantime, at least part of Haiti's history looks to be recalled in a
historical epic about the leader of the slave revolt, Toussaint Louverture.
The actor Danny Glover is due to direct the feature, which will have
Venezuelan money behind it. Glover has been looking at locations near
Caracas and is apparently anxious that the incredible story of the revolt
be told. "It's been essentially wiped out of our historic memory, it's been
wiped clean," Glover has said.

Ghosts of Cité Soleil could be the start of the recollection.