Haiti in Harlem Date: September 29 - October 6 Location: Maysles Institute, 343 Malcolm X Boulevard / Lenox Avenue (between 127th and 128th Streets) Tickets: Suggested Admission: $7. Box office opens 1 hour before show time.
The Films
Monday, Sept. 29 7:30 pm Queimada (Burn!) with Marlon Brando
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo (Battle of Algiers), 1969, 132 mins.
The German, Polish and French movie posters
Duration: 7 min 33 sec
A Caribbean island in the mid-1800’s. Nature has made it a paradise; man has made it a hell. Slaves on vast sugar plantations are ready to turn their misery into rebellion—and the British are ready to provide the spark. They send agent William Walker (Marlon Brando) on a devious three-part mission: trick the slaves into revolt, grab the sugar trade for England…then return the slaves to servitude. Colonialism and insurrection are explored in the searing epic BURN!. Both visually and narratively stunning, BURN! glows with the fires of filmmaking genius. Genius is also evident in Brando’s complex, intelligent portrayal of a man who is both gentlemen and scoundrel, revolutionary and colonialist. And Ennio Morricone’s (The Untouchables, The Mission) haunting music memorably underscores the almost overwhelmingly powerful story.
Six years in the making and filmed clandestinely under the Duvalier dictatorship, Bitter Cane is a timeless documentary classic about the exploitation and foreign domination of the Haitian people. From peasant coffee farms in the rugged tropical mountains to steamy U.S.-owned sweatshops in the teeming capital, the film takes the viewer on a journey through Haitian history to a deeper understanding of that country’s political economy. We see emerging paths of flight—industries from the U.S., refugees from Haiti—which are having profound effects on both societies. Director will be in attendence.
Wednesday, Oct. 1 7:30 pm Haiti: Killing the Dream
Dir. Katharine Kean, Rudi Stern, Babeth, Hart Perry 1992, 57 mins.
A stark, explosive look at a besieged neighboring country whose origins as the world’s first independent black republic have been obscured by decades of brutal repression. Here the Haitian people speak for themselves. They also speak through their deposed leader, Jean Bertrand Aristide, the country’s democratically elected president, who is now in exile. Haiti’s repression has been historically countenanced, if not inspired, by the United States, a posture that exists to this day.
Director will be in attendence.
This award-winning film chronicles the political events and human tragedy surrounding the 1991 military coup d’etat in Haiti and the bloody dictatorship that followed. It presents a searing indictment not only of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s role in the turmoil, but also that of the powerful and reclusive Haitian bourgeoisie. Unlike the mainstream media, Rezistans does not portray the Haitian people as helpless victims. It focuses instead on their creative and courageous resistance, and the deep roots of that resistance in Haitian history and culture. Director will be in attendence.
Nicolas Rossier’s powerful and informative documentary focuses on Aristide’s later years as president, as he struggled to fulfill his promises of reform in the face of mounting domestic opposition (driven in large part by business and military interests) and, simultaneously, an increasingly hostile relationship with the United States. Popular among Haiti’s poor and disenfranchised, Aristide became a target of Haiti’s business interests (and the political parties that served those interests) because of his daring policies which tried to raise the standard of living for the huge majority of Haitians. Director will be in attendence.
Friday, Oct. 3 9:00 pm Haiti: Democracy Undone
Dir. Peter Bull, Walt Bogdanich, Pascal Akesson, 2006, 57 mins.
Haiti: Democracy Undone presents new evidence that the U.S. had one foreign policy on Haiti but secretly carried out a very different policy - and that those mixed signals helped tilt the country toward chaos.
Saturday, Oct. 4 7:30 pm The Price of Sugar
Dir. Bill Haney, 2007, 90 mins.
Duration: 2 min 25 sec
In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians are toiling under armed guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education and healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, The Price of Sugar follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere’s poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced. Director will be in attendence.
Sunday, Oct. 5 7:30 Man by the Shore (L’Homme sur les Quais) [NYTimes Review]
Dir. Raoul Peck, 1993, 106 mins.
Set in Haiti during the early sixties when François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s regime was consolidating its brutal control, The Man by the Shore is an eloquent account of the ways in which political oppression can saturate ones consciousness and infiltrate the details of everyday life.
Monday, Oct. 6 7:30 pm Pawol Granmoun
Dir. David Belle, 2002, 58 mins.
“Pawol Gran Moun” or “Words of the Elders” is the first part in a number of documentaries about traditional culture that Crowing Rooster Arts is currently producing in Haiti. This series aims to capture the lives, memories and traditions of Haiti’s older generations during a time when the country’s youth increasingly embraces foreign values and culture.
As traditional life and memory seem to be more and more jeopardized everywhere in the world, “Pawol Gran Moun” hopes to serve as a reminder that the wisdom and knowledge of our elders is essential to both our history and our future.
This first one hour segment is the portrait of three elder peasants: a tailor, a sailor and a Vodou priest. Through the story of each man’s life, the Haiti of yesterday and today meet, and the beauty of the way that life has been lived for generations lives on. Director will be in attendence.
Madame Tizo
Dir. David Belle, 2004, 64 mins.
Madame Tizo (Mrs. Little Bones) is a documentary portrait of a dynamic peasant healer from Jacmel, Haiti. The film tells the story of an extraordinary Haitian elder who runs the equivalent of a rural health clinic from her modest thatched roof hut situated near the Jacmel River. While taking care of numerous relatives and neighbors who depend upon her, Mrs. Little Bones or Mother Bones, as friends know her, simultaneously works as a midwife and leaf doctor for an endless stream of men, women and children who find their way to her yard seeking relief from their maladies. Humorous, mysterious and insightful, the film offers a rare glimpse into the traditional life of Haitian peasants. A reality where faith in the spirit world is central to resolving problems and where access to modern medicine is extremely limited. Director will be in attendence.
Development Ventures (DV) is an exploratory developmental entrepreneurship seminar on founding, financing, & building viable ventures in developing nations and emerging regions. DV is a member of the larger D-Labs family of classes addressing Development-Design-Dissemination at MIT. Since 2001 we have challenged students to use business methods to tackle the UN Millennium Development Goals by crafting enduring, scalable, and economically viable solutions to problems faced by at least One Billion people worldwide.
Jose Gomez-Marquez from Little Devices That Could is going to be attending the class so check out his blog for up to date info on how the class is going.
Project 10^100 (pronounced “Project 10 to the 100th”) is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.
Why Google is doing this?
Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.
In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.
In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.
The question is: what would help? And help most?
At Google, we don’t believe we have the answers, but we do believe the answers are out there. Maybe in a lab, or a company, or a university — but maybe not.
Maybe the answer that helps somebody is in your head, in something you’ve observed, some notion that you’ve been fiddling with, some small connection you’ve noticed, some old thing you have seen with new eyes.
If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We’re looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we’re committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.
I told you yesterday now members of an NBC news crew are in Gonaives gathering footage of the aftermath of the hurricanes in Haiti. Here is their first video report.
A few twitter posts from @newmediajim from the past day or so.
we setup our own internet here at the UN compound in Gonaives. Greetings from Haiti Twitterland!
@andrewyb we use this http://tinyurl.com/2z4gaf [Inmarsat BGAN terminal] to get broadband just about anywhere in the world
@dougpete we did have a scare from this tropical disturbance that’s in the region. everyone tells us any measurable rain here = disaster
@martindave thanks martin! we’ve been working pretty hard down here. hope our first effort here does story of the Hatian people justice
@NBCNewsCrew has shot the bulk of video here. I’m acting as cameraman/producer/editor. digitized 2.5 hrs of video today
just started to rain here in Gonaives.. not what this city needs. steady showers so far.
@AmandaSena these people are strong though, despite crushing poverty,desruction, food/health crises, you can see their strength to carry on
@rocklandusa works for Fairfax County VA Search and Rescue. He’s here in Gonaives, Haiti coordinating with other NGO’s
Don Prudencio Lopez passed away August 23rd 2008 after a long bout of illness.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of welding either as an beginner, artisan or expert, you know its more an art than a science to manipulate the rod and puddle just right, to not burn through the metal, to create that perfect bead that will hold strength. Don Prudencio Lopez was a master craftsman who as Pete would say enviously, “made some beautiful welds”.
We first met Don Prudencio in fall 2005 when we came to Guatemala to launch XelaTeco. At 72, he was teaching young students metalwork at Escuela Taller Agaton Boj in Quetzaltenango and was the primary mentor for Candido Morales, who later became the youngest member of XelaTeco at 16.
Over the years that followed, his handiwork was evident in the improved stoves that are helping keep smoke from families homes’, the micro-hydro system penstock and turbines that are providing electricity to Neuva Alianza, and in much of metalwork that XelaTeco has done since its inception. It lives on is the work of his previous apprentice, Candido.
Over the past year, Don Prudencio had been forced to slow things down. He had been struggling with heart disease. Despite an operation last year and a good long fight, he succombed to illness and died last month. He is survived by his 16 year old daughter, Delmy. He will be missed.
Don Prudencio, letting sparks fly.
Don Prudencio with Candido Morales working on the Pelton turbine casing.
Don Pru and the hydro system manifold. Photo by Lisa Silberstein
In this installment of Boing Boing tv’s ongoing BBtv WORLD series, I travel to the West African nation of Benin to visit the Songhaï Center, a green tech project designed to develop a new generation of “agricultural entrepreneurs,” and foster economic sustainability.
Farmers in Peru are working with MIT engineers to design solutions to local challenges. From left: a pedal-powered grain mill; the approach to the town’s water source
From impoverished Peruvian villages to MIT’s D-Lab, professor Amy Smith and her spirited team of engineers are on a mission: Fight global poverty and improve living standards for developing countries—one low-cost, accessible invention at a time.
Doing a charcoal burn in 2006 in Cap Haitien. See flickr photoset: D-lab/AIDG 2006
Veggie burgers cooked over corncob charcoal. Note: after additional study in the D-lab, corncob charcoal is converted into briquettes which produce lower NOX, SOX, and carbon monoxide emissions.See flickr photoset: IPIDAT 2007
Just an FYI: Twitter users Jim Long (@newmediajim) and @NBCnewscrew arrived in Gonaives yesterday to cover the hurricane relief efforts for MSNBC and probably also NBC nightly news.
If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a micro-blogging platform that gives you a strict 140 character limit to say whatever you have to say in a post (aka tweet). It’s not a lot of room to work with but you can still convey a lot. The team landed last night and here are a few things they noted already. If their comments seem brusque, it has more to do with the format than anything else.
From NBCNewsCrew
@newmediajim and I have arrived in Gonaives, Haiti. We split up to shoot daylight video. Had about an hour before sunset to shoot a story.
My first impression: wow! The poverty, the mud, the flood water in the streets thats two weeks old… It’s just overwelming!
We are following the WFP: world food program. These guys are desperately trying to help feed thousands of now homeless Haitians.
After shooting the faces of these little kids, the innocent smiles, the sunken eyes from hunger… It quite frankly breaks my heart…. :(
When the sunset over Haiti… everything went dark, No electricity, no lights. Very surreal. You can hear people, just can’t see anything!
From newmediajim
Greetings from Gonaives, Haiti Twitterland! got in to Gonaives just in time to shoot a couple of elements. abject, pressing poverty
people lined up to fill buckets filled with water they know isn’t fit to drink but they have no choice.
despite pitiful conditions, people of Haiti show tremendous courage and will. later we’ll go on a midnight food distribution
@BartoGirl so far so good. getting a lot done in a short amount of time. in fact. i have to start digitizing tape!
Jim normally works as part of the White House Press Corps [See Day in the Life video]
