Creole connection

The fourth annual Montreal International
Haitian Film Festival takes on the
controversial subject of voodoo with a wide
selection of films and cultural events

LOW-BUDGET LABOUR OF LOVE: Minuit

by MALCOLM FRASER

Montreal’s Haitian community is the biggest one in Canada and one of the largest outside of Haiti itself, with over 70,000 people of Haitian origin in our city. Since 2005, the Montreal International Haitian Film Festival has been showcasing Haiti’s small but vibrant film industry to the expat community and curious film fans. This year, bold founder/programmer Fabienne Colas has courted controversy among the Haitian community by pointing the festival’s spotlight at voodoo (correctly spelled vodou or vaudou in the original Creole), an ancient spiritual practice that’s as heavily mythologized and misunderstood outside the Haitian community as it is a sensitive and contentious subject within it.

“I moved to Montreal in 2003, and when I came here I was a popular actress in Haiti,” Colas recalls. “I was really in the mood of films and festivals and Haiti, and there was nothing here. I was shocked, because I knew the Haitian community was huge here. I talked to some people about setting up some screenings or a festival.

“I needed a window to show what Haiti’s all about. When people here think of Haiti, they think of bad images or the bad political situation. And when they think about Haitians in Montreal, it’s even worse—they think about gangs de rue. There is a Haitian film industry, though it doesn’t have a lot of means. Haiti is not just what we see on the news.”

When she first pitched the festival, Colas found that many people suggested she try working it into Vues d’Afrique, the festival of culture from Africa and the African diaspora. “Of course, I went to see Vues d’Afrique before putting together this festival,” she says. “They had over 100 films, and maybe one Haitian film. I found that really astonishing. I was like, ‘What?’ We have 10, 20 films a year or more—features, documentaries and everything. We have our own identity; we don’t need to be just one small part of another thing.”

ART AND RELIGION: Painting by Harry Chéry

TABOO TOPIC

When asked how and why she came up with the voodoo theme for this year’s fest, Colas laughs. “I was tired of Canadians asking me about voodoo all the time, and not being able to respond because I didn’t know anything about it,” she replies. “Sometimes my Canadian or Québecois friends would talk about having gone to Haiti and participated in a voodoo ceremony. I was like, my God, I’m Haitian myself and I’ve never even been to one.

“Voodoo is a big taboo in our community. People associate it with black magic, evil and all that. So it was a tough decision, because I was raised in a Christian family, I went to Catholic school, and that predisposed me to hate voodoo, to be prejudiced against it my whole life. I know it’s something that sells a lot in the Canadian or Quebec market, but for Haitians it’s tougher. But we’re in 2008, and it’s time for us to get away from these prejudices and taboos.”

Colas is speculative when asked about the reasons for this taboo. In the context of Haitian history, she explains, “the white colonizers were Catholic, and the slaves had voodoo. So among the mulatto middle-class people, voodoo has always been associated with lower-class, uneducated, poor people. Until today, in the mentality of some people in Haiti and Haitian communities all over the world, there’s this attitude that voodoo is not for us.”

Unsurprisingly, Colas received a mixed reaction from the community when she floated the idea. “Some people who are open-minded were like, ‘Wow, that’s great, you have a lot of guts,’” she recalls. “But some people in the Christian community were like, ‘Why? What are you trying to prove?’ I always have to explain that we’re not trying to sell or promote voodoo or convince anybody, we’re just trying to debate it.”

Colas is not only the president of the festival, but also the director of its opening-night film, the voodoo-infused family drama Minuit. This might seem to be taking Montreal-style conflict of interest to its ultimate degree, but to Colas the film and the festival are part of the same mission to spotlight the films of Haiti and its diaspora.

“It’s my very first film,” Colas says of Minuit with a mixture of pride and nervousness. “It’s not a film you can compare to other films. We had no funding from Telefilm, SODEC or anything. It’s to show that while some people are complaining that SODEC only gave them

“It’s a very small film. It talks about voodoo, but there’s a love story and a friendship story in it as well. It was shot in Montreal, and we did in four or five weekends, working around the cast and crew’s day jobs. Journalists always ask, ‘What is a Haitian film, what do they look like?’ This is what a Haitian film looks like, this is what kind of budget we have. It’s a way to understand our industry and where we’re coming from.”

SLAVE STORY: L’Arbre de l’oubli

HAITIAN HIGHLIGHTS

A number of other interesting features are spotlighted at the festival. Claudio Del Punta’s Haiti chérie tells the haunting story of a couple who return to Haiti after years working the sugarcane fields in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Frantz St-Louis’s Coup de foudre is a Montreal-based drama with political undertones, about the romance between an anti-government activist and a regime supporter whose relationship is complicated by their opposite allegiances.

Moise Kharmeliaud’s Chimen Pasyon is a tragic love triangle set in 1990s Haiti. Emmanuel Jean-Baptiste’s Sonjé is the story of two middle-class Haitien teens in Montreal who get caught up in the street gang scene. Réalisateurs indépenents d’Haiti is a program of five shorts from up-and-coming Haitian filmmakers.

Documentaries are also well represented, with a number of intriguing selections. Irène Lichenstein’s Une mémoire vodou is a documentary about Marianne Lehmann, a Swiss woman who married a Haitian man in 1957 and ended up with the world’s largest collection of voodoo objects. Thanassis Papacostas’ Zombie explores the cultural significance of the titular undead beings, who occupy a central role in voodoo mythology and everyday Haitian life.

Jean-Claude La Marre’s The Color of the Cross details the possible African origins of Jesus Christ. Arnold Antonin’s Jacques Roumain, la passion d’un pays is a Haiti-Canada co-production on the iconic 19th-century Haitian writer. And Norluck Dorange’s L’Arbre de l’oubli tells the painful story of the slave trade between Africa and Haiti.

The festival also includes a number of international films with Haitian subjects, even including Wes Craven’s 1988 horror flick The Serpent and the Rainbow. “We wanted to show how people of all nationalities see Haiti,” explains Colas; “that’s why we have films from all over the world.”

The festival runs in conjunction with an exhibit at MosaikArt entitled Voodoo: Art, Mystery and Religion. On display will be the works of Haitian painters Hersza Barjon, Anthony Benoit and adopted Montrealers Harry Chéry and Jean Durandisse, a collection of voodoo objects from the intriguingly named mother-daughter duo La Belle déesse and La Belle déesse Jr., and an exhibit of photos chronicling voodoo rituals from award-winning photographer Les Stone, who has spent the last two decades chronicling war-torn zones all over the world and the conflicts’ effect on the people who live in these troubled areas.

Other events include a tribute to Haitian singing legend Toto Bissainthe, and a panel discussion on various voodoo-related topics. These include the role of voodoo in Haitian politics, the overlap between Catholic saints and voodoo spirits, and, Colas laughs, “a voodoo priest will explain how to use voodoo in Quebec, even if we have snowstorms and can’t go outside!”

Colas hopes that the taboo-breaking festival will lead to greater cultural understanding, both within and beyond the Haitian community. “You have to dare to do some things in life,” she declares, “and I’m trying to show the world—people who want to know more, people who are scared and don’t know the real voodoo—what voodoo is from a Haitian point of view.”

THE MIHFF RUNS FROM
SEPT. 17–21.SEE
FESTIVALFILMHAITIEN.COM
FOR DETAILS.

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