Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters 2022
Haitian history is presented through an explosion of colour, dance and music, as the country prepares for its legendary carnival.
Haitian history is presented through an explosion of colour, dance and music, as the country prepares for its legendary carnival.
Some say that a garanti talisman offers a direct connection with the gods, while others believe that ancestors need to act as intermediaries. Whatever the case, the result is the same: a garanti offers protection and brings happiness.
Early 1960s Haiti during 'Papa Doc' Duvalier's dictatorship seen through the eyes of a young girl whose family has suffered heavily.
Edouard has been living in Port-au-Prince with just his daughter Zara for five years. Since his wife left, his daughter and him have only received a cassette from her, and that was a long time ago. After years of absence, what can we expect from a distant love?
A young Haitian boy must decide if joining a gang is the right path for him.
The film tells the story of one citizen from Jalouzi, one of the largest slums in Haiti, who is determined to bring color to the impoverished area by helping paint the entire town, literally. Believing that color has the power to transform his community, he’s helping to paint everywhere – on houses, on buses, and the entire hillside. Armed with brushes of bright blues, pastel pinks, and sunshine yellows, he’s helping to mobilize citizens of all ages, determined to turn the grey town into a rainbow full of color to lead the way to a brighter Haiti.
The son of a wealthy Haitian presidential candidate has just been kidnapped. The kidnappers are demanding a hefty ransom. Doc and Zoe are two amateur gangsters - and soccer freaks - who must deliver the young man to their ruthless boss. Impulsive Zoe accidentally kills the candidate’s son. Faced with a terrible fate for killing their hostage, Doc and Zoe stumble upon Patrick and his nine-month-pregnant wife, Laura. The young couple must, at all costs, catch a flight out of Haiti to give birth in the US to get citizenship for their baby. Patrick’s great misfortune is that he looks ex- actly like the senator’s dead son. In the midst of a heated election and a Barça-Real classico match, Doc and Zoe find themselves at the center of a political conspiracy.
Ritual dances, incantations and fetishes in an associative sequence of mystical scenes reveal the roots of the Afro-Cuban minority in Bauta, Cuba, whose colonial past is guarded by a statue of a slave in chains. Tobacco smoke and magical ceremonies awaken the spirits of ancestors and invite them to fill the forgotten places of cultural memory of a young generation searching for their identity in a post-colonial era of political instability and religious syncretism.
Young Anita's life consists of working as a servant to a wealthy family, leaving her little time for anything else. Her servitude (which some would call slavery) provides an insight into a frighteningly common experience for children in Haiti.
Winodia is kicked out from her mother's house. She goes to stay at her friend's house. While there, she unexpectedly sees her boyfriend from Haiti.
In a fortress on a hill in Haiti a democratically elected president prepares himself for a state ceremony. On the day of the festivities the president finds his country in turmoil. The whole nation is in the grips of a riot that has broken out overnight. But nothing should stop the president’s ceremony.
Stemming from her personal experience, her close ones’ testimonies and surprising encounters, Gessica Généus, Haitian filmmaker questions the “disease of the soul” devouring her native island.
In an insular city, a young girl is paralyzed by the fear of her loved ones disappearing. Her grandmother tells her the tale of Edwardo, the first one of his kind to have fought death.
One family, three men, three generations, all living together with their contrasting aspirations, within the contradictions of daily life in southern Haïti. Tensions mount between them, their ever-present machetes on-hand, defining them.
Doc and Zoe are just hired for the night to deliver an unknown package. At a crossroad, they stumble upon a dog. In Haiti, each crossroad requires a sacrifice.
A poet from Haiti flees to America after being imprisoned in his native country. Recovering from the experience, he begins to examine his past. One day he encounters his former torturer, and becomes obsessed with taking his revenge.
Anne falls in love with Don Kato, the reggae singer with dreadlocks. Tonton Bicha, her eccentric father, opposes. He will do anything to break the relationship while he favors Jude, the handsome but obscure entrepreneur.
Chèche Lavi is a lyrical portrait of two Haitian migrants, Robens and James, who find themselves stranded at the US-Mexico border with no way forward and no one to depend on but each other.
A 26-year-old man becomes gravely ill and died of an unknown disease. He was clearly hexed: it’s October 1980 and we are in Haïti. Meanwhile, in Reagan's country, health authorities have decided that Haitians, Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs and Heroin users are to be part of the 4H club whose members are dying in New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto. Why put the Haitians in a separate group?
A restless daughter meets a spirit-fish who gives her pure water. But as her family devours the delicious water, they begin to suspect more than the origin of its taste.