Movies - Haiti Observer Blog

One of the coolest film festivals in the world. Starting June 13 through 17, 2018, join our community of artists, executives and industry tastemakers who gather each year in Miami Beach to showcase emerging talent, celebrate Black culture and create opportunities for people of color to achieve success in the entertainment industry.

Enjoy five action-packed days of red carpet premieres, master classes, celebrity conversations, tech talks, exclusive parties and more. ABFF is at the forefront of diversity in Hollywood and continues to inspire generations of new artists and storytellers! Be a part of this coming summer's hottest event.

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Le 7e Festival Fondu au Noir offrira une grande célébration du Mois de l'Histoire des Noirs à Montréal du 22 au 25 février 2018 à travers un programme alliant cinéma, humour, musique et discussions.

Le Festival Fondu au Noir, créé par la Fondation Fabienne Colas et présenté par la Banque TD, revient avec une 7e édition inspirante et diversifiée. 2018 étant une année mythique soulignant les 215 ans de l'indépendance d'Haïti, le Festival a choisi le thème hommage à Haïti et ses talents tout en commémorant, en clôture du Festival à travers le film The Rape of Recy Taylor, l'important mouvement planétaire #MoiAussi, qui inspire les femmes à se tenir debout et à s'exprimer.

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'My Father's Land', a documentary film by Miquel Galofré and Tyler Johnston has been awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights Prize in 2015 at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival (ttff) on September 27, 2015. The film is a true story of protagonist Papa Jah, a Haitian gardener who has spent the last 40 years in a marginalized community called 'the Mud' in the Bahamas. Papa Jah is a long-time friend of director Johnston. When Papa learnt that his 103-year-old father has taken ill back in Haiti, he feared that he may not see him anymore, rushed back to Haiti to meet him living in a small village on the island La Tortue.

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Raoul Peck (born 1953, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian award winneing filmmaker who fled the Duvalier dictatorship with his two younger brothers and joined his father in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo when he was only 8 years old. Before studying industrial engineering and economics at Berlin's Humboldt University, he attended schools in the DRC (Kinshasa), in the United States (Brooklyn). He earned a baccalaureate in France (Orléans). His recent film 'Fatal Assistance' (Assistance Mortelle) released last year, highlights the colossal aid failure in Haiti's reconstruction. This documentary tries to find out how, in spite of many international community's promises, the needs of ten million Haitians ended in a paltry fashion.

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Sometimes, a closed door is an opportunity to create your own. Rarely is this tale of not taking no for an answer told more brilliantly than in the case of Haitian actress Fabienne Colas.

Born on the 18th of March, 1979 in Port-au-Prince, Colas attended École des sÅ"urs religieuses catholiques for elementary education and attended high school at one of the country's most prestigious schools, College Marie Anne. After high school, the actress began her tenure at university, where she took studies in human relations and Spanish among other things. After her schooling, Colas began her acting career.

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After forging a substantive career in entertainment encompassing fashion and the cinematic arts, Haitian-born actor, Jimmy Jean-Louis began his humanitarianism, having gained a formidable platform from which to do good works, and has now been awarded the Excellence in the Arts prize for his contributions to entertainment as well as humanity through the foundation he founded, Hollywood United for Haiti.

Upon receiving the prestigious award from the Caribbean American Heritage Awards, Jimmy Jean-Louis joined the ranks of those Caribbean notables who have taken home a prize from the foundation which awards those Caribbean artists who have made significant contributions as immigrants to the United States. Past recipients include Jamaican Reggae Artist, Freddie McGregor, who has had hits including, 'Big Ship' and 'Just don't want to be lonely', though McGregor's award was for Lifetime Achievement.

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Montreal is holding its ninth International Black Film Festival of 2013. The Festival committee held a media conference to talk about the Festival events.

The main honoree will be Danny Glover, an academy-award nominated actor. He will pick up the 2013 Montreal International Black Film Festival's Humanitarian Award. Involved as an activist, most recently as a supporter for a transit workers' strike in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has made films with some of Hollywood's top actors, among Mel Gibson, Sally Field, and John Malkovich.

Other honorees are Kim Nguyen, an academy-award nominated director, and Josue Lajeunesse, a Haitian-American activist. Lajeunesse came to public awareness in a featured role in "The Philosopher Kings". He has been recognized for his good works in helping Haitians raise their living standards. Aimé Cesaire, co-founder of the Negritude Movement, will also be honored, he would have reached 100.

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The Serpent and the Rainbow is a horror movie that was directed by Wes Craven in year 1988. The movie was inspired by a book by Wade Davis, which had the same title. Davis was an ethnobotanist from Harvard who investigated Haiti's Voodoo society and found out two drugs that were used for the purpose of zombification. The drugs he identified were used by the Voodoo practitioners to dramatically reduce the metabolic rate of victims which made them appear as if they were dead. The victims were then buried and later they were dug up and revived using herbal brew. The resurrected victims appeared lobotomized.

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The Haitian film industry is about to experience a first. An independent, short-feature film, "Addiction", produced by Haitian-American filmmaker, Perri Pierre, is going to be screened for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the 2014 awards ceremony. AMPAS requires a film to be in release for a two-day, two-screening run to qualify. Pierre and Amis Entertainment are partnering with Laemmle Theatres in Southern California to make that happen.

"Addiction" tells the tale of a substance abuser, who wages war with his drug and alcohol demons, while searching for fulfillment in love. Early reports from industry insiders, who have gotten a first look at the film, say the character study of a young man's struggle against the undertow of drug addiction is poignant and compelling.

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Great news for stage film buffs! Danny Glover is all set to play the character of the revolutionary Toussaint L'ouverture. For those who do not know about Toussaint L'ouverture, he was a shrewd and a military genius and was the mastermind behind the Haitian Revolution. His act of bravery and intelligence during the revolution is what is believed to have established the independent black state of Haiti and completely abolished slavery.

Danny Glover will star as Toussaint L'ouverture in "Roots of Liberty: The Haitian Revolution and American Civil War". Danny has been working on this film for quite some time and is very excited to have finally nailed down the script and get it off the blocks. This has got a lot of people excited in the stage pageant arena. Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian mentioned that the film would be highly exciting and humbling experience and that it would be great to be in the presence of such a revolutionary figure.

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