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#5270: Documentary about restavek children (fwd)
From: Kramerkar@aol.com
As many of you know, for the past 3 years, I have been making a documentary
film about the restavek situation in Haiti. In 1997, my Haitian friend and I
spent about a month in Port-au-Prince following several restaveks as they
worked throughout the day. We filmed the children as they went through their
daily chores - the non-stop cooking, washing, sweeping, mopping, cleaning,
going to the market for food, making the long trek to the river to fetch
water, etc. We started filming them as they woke up at 5 a.m. and stayed
with them until they finished their chores late at night. We were also able
to interview the children a bit, as well as their "aunts" (caretakers).
Although it had been expected that no one would speak openly on camera,
surprisingly the "aunts" spoke very openly (and proudly) about all the work
their restavek was able to do for them The children were also interviewed
and they spoke fairly openly (and shyly) about their lives and their
aspirations.
Six months later I returned to Haiti, and this time we went into the
countryside to film the rural context where most of these children come from.
We traveled throughout the country - up north to the area of Jean-Rabel,
south to Cayes and Jacmel and Miroagane, up mountains, and down rutted back
roads. (For those of you who know Haiti, I'm sure you can imagine what that
entailed!) We filmed scenes of rural life and interviewed peasants about what
life is like in the countryside, why they would need to give away one (or
several) of their children, etc.
Two years later (last January) I returned again to Haiti to do a follow-up on
several of the restaveks we'd filmed to see if their lives had changed since
we started filming them. We were able to follow and interview 2 of them whom
we had filmed years earlier. In addition to filming the restaveks, their
lives, the interviews with their "caretakers", and their rural backgrounds,
we also filmed interviews with people who have worked with the restaveks in
an effort to help and understand their lives. These include human rights
workers, psychologists, progressive priests and social workers. The film
will not only document the plight of these children - but also offer
solutions - both long-range and short-term - which can alleviate the problem.
To date, all of the footage has been shot, translated (from Creole to Eng),
and logged for editing and we hope to begin editing as soon as we can receive
some completion funds. The fact that this is an independently produced film
and not a sponsored one gives our situation both advantages and
disadvantages. The good part is that because of the time we were able to
spend filming this situation, we were able to get footage that could never be
gotten by a television crew which can only spend a week or two on the
subject. The disadvantage of course is that, unlike a television crew we
don't have a budget and must constantly scramble for funding. When the film
is completed we plan to go around the country and show it, as well as offer
it to Haitian television. Many venues in the US have asked to use it as
well. For more information, please contact me at kramerkar@aol.com
Karen Kramer