Shorts and Documentaries
Coeur d’Ayiti
Steve James
Guadeloupe | 2017 | 52 min
With Stéphanie and Steve James
For many years, Josy Budon has been one of the most well known personalities on the media scene of the island of Guadeloupe. An announcer for many different television programs, she is also the face and the voice of Carnival. And yet, after the last of the parades, after the effigy of Vaval has gone up in flames only to be reborn the next year from the ashes, this media star reveals her other side, that of a militant for helping others in a discrete and passionate way, while improving life for the kids in a Haitian village. She has shown that outside of the controversial actions of the established humanitarian organizations, a different form of solidarity is possible.
Steve and Stéphanie James are above all a couple of “rooted nomads,” deeply attached to their native Caribbean but who globe trot continually... their heads in the clouds! In order to share their love of the Caribbean region with others, they opted for the art of the image, and especially the image of women in their televised magazine F Comme Femme (100 13-minute interviews filmed in 20 different Caribbean destinations) and the
documentary series, F Comme Femme Diaspora
(41 26-minute episodes) for which they traveled extensively to find exceptional women who are ambassadors of Caribbean culture around the planet.
They have also written, produced, and directed documentaries that have been screened in numerous international festivals, winning the Special Prize of the Public for The Black Mozart In Cuba (Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles 2011) and the Prize for the Best Diaspora Documentary for Fan Do Brazil (Africa Movie Academy Awards, Nigeria, 2013). Their documentaries also include Almendron Mi Corazon and Santiago, the soul of the Caribbean, both filmed in Cuba.
The Secrets of Caribbean Fortresses 2
Patrick Baucelin
Martinique | 2017 | 50 min
With Patrick Baucelin
Official Selection:
– Rome Independent Film Festival
– International Pan-African Film Festival, Cannes
– 51st Houston International Film Festival
Two Awards of Merit, La Jolla, California
Forts and fortresses of the Caribbean, these battlements represent the only defense the islands had against an invasion, be it from the English, the French, the Dutch, or the Spanish.
Whether celebrated or in the shadows, restored or in ruins, perhaps with their towers still standing proudly, all of these forts have a story to tell and resonate with memories of their glorious past.
By the sea or in the mountains, they remain witnesses to the history of the entire Caribbean region (Martinique, Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Saint Eustache, Saint Vincent & Les Grenadines, Saint Barthélemy…).
This film invites us to push open the door to these fortifications, as they share our historic memories.
Enter into a mysterious, little-known world that shares some of its secrets with you…
Patrick Baucelin is an independent audiovisual director and producer from Martinique. Born in 1957 in Fort-de-France, he is one of the few directors from Martinique to represent Caribbean cinema globally. For almost 30 years, he has been making documentaries about the Caribbean, and his films have won numerous awards at international festivals around the world.
Dèyè Mas La
Dimitry Zandronis
Guadeloupe | 2018 | 66 min
With Dimitry Zandronis & Josué Callatin
Carnival in Guadeloupe is an island-wide institution. Every year, thousands of people take to the streets between New Year’s Day and Ash Wednesday. Some march in groups while others watch the colorful parades that take place every Sunday leading up to Shrove Tuesday. This ritual exists not only in Guadeloupe, but also in Martinique and in Guyana, but in Guadeloupe, carnival takes on another dimension, above all the festivities. This film takes us “Dèyè mas la,” or “Behind The Mask” to look the various individuals who make up the carnival groups and the mysticism of this event that embraces the island, right up to the burning of the iconic Vaval, marking the start of Lent for Christians.
This documentary is part of an audio-visual program for young people in Guadeloupe. Created by artist Didier Daly, the association, Tout Est Possible, aimed to helping people in social or physical difficultly, is concerned about the future for young people in Guadeloupe.
In January 2016, the association concentrated its energy on the creation of an entry-level program with audiovisual and digital technology training. Ten young people recruited for their passion in this area and their willingness, took part in the training and in December 2017 earned a two-year university-level degree and have professional experience under their belts.
The production of the film, Dèyè mas la, took place throughout their program to give them a solid project through which to work on all aspects of the profession. The students were accompanied by professionals, from the scripting of the scenario to the final cut of a project that strictly respects the codes of a production for broadcast, as well as creating the marketing plan for the distribution of the film.
Originally from Guadeloupe, Dimitry Saleem Zandronis returned to the island in 2001 after studying history and film in Toulouse. In 2003, he created a production company, Kontras’ Prod, and started to produce short fictions films and documentaries.
In 2011 he produced a documentary about Maryse Condé, followed by a series of 10 documentaries about “gwoka” drumming, including a special on tambours from Guyana.
His cinematic writing responds to an artistic desire to use all the tools at his disposition that can possibly serve his narrative. He describes his aesthetic as a poetic documentary, a mix of fiction, animation, and classic documentary filmmaking. His most recent film, Dèyè mas la, shown on Canal + Antilles in February 2018, was fully created and edited with the young participants in the training program run by the association Tout Est Possible.
Josué Callatin is a 23 year-old, self-taught editor and camera operator. He started in audio-visual in 2013, then in early 2016 he became part of the audiovisual integration project set up by the association, Tout Est Possible, by artist Didier Daly. In 2018, he edited the documentary film, Dèyè mas la, the fruit of two years of work within the association.
Journey Through the Worlds of Frankétienne
Arnold Antonin
Haiti | 2015 | 86 min
With Frankétienne
The zombies and guedés are the most important and most disconcerting elements of the Haitian imaginary and specifically that of Frankétienne. This film is a journey through the worlds of Frankétienne, the greatest creator guedé of the country. He drags us into the secret paths of his own poetic, literary and plastic creation, as a high-flying poet, singer, playwright, preacher, Nobel hunter and director of his own death.
Born in Ravine Sèche on April 12, 1936,
Franck Etienne attended primary school at the Petit Séminaire Collège St. Martial de Port-au-Prince and went to high school at Lycée Alexandre Pétion.
A nationally and internationally renowned writer, with more than 40 works on his resume (poetry, novels, plays, and “spirales”), including “Dezafi,” the first Haitian novel written in Creole.
He is the inventor of the notion of “spirales” and the concept of “schizophonia” in terms of literary language, where the words are treated as particles of sensual energy.
Frankétienne is also acclaimed for his play, “Pèlentèt,” and his double dimension theatre: aesthetic and ideological.
Frankétienne has received numerous awards, both in Haiti, and around the world, including:
– Prix Ouessant in France (2005)
– Latin Union International Prize in Rome (2006)
– Prix Prince Claus in Hollande (2006)
– Prix “National Living Treasure of Haiti” (Haiti 2006)
– Named UNESCO Artist For Peace in Paris (2010)
– Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, high distinction on the part of the French Republic (2010)
– Named Haitian Cultural Ambassador (2016)
Multi-disciplinary artist, he has had several exhibits of his paintings in Haiti, Europe, The United States, The West Indies, and Japan.
Arnold Antonin is a filmmaker, a university professor and also leads a cultural center. He was President of the Haitian Filmmakers Association. He created the Petion Bolivar municipal center, whose objective is to promote culture and political debates.
Antonin has produced and directed more than twenty documentaries and two films, Piwouli (Piwouli and Zenglendo) and Le President a-t-il Le Sida?, with which he has won several international awards.
Bitin Brass Band
Philippe Dib
St Barth | 2017 | 4 min
St Barth’s popular brass band takes us on a tour of the island with their upbeat music and spirit in this short flim made for the St Barth Tourist Office.
Filmmaker Philippe Dib is the brother of Jean-Michel Dib, who plays the guitar in the Bitin Brass Band. He made the clip about the band for the Territorial Tourism Committee of Saint Barthélemy.
Images of St Barth
Alan Needleman
St Barth | 2017 | 10 min
A frequent visitor to Saint Barth, Alan Needleman has captured the spirit of Saint Barth through his lens, then custom colors his images for a true island flavor.
Alan Needleman and his husband Martin have been coming to St Barth for 25 years. For his career, he traveled throughout the world, always taking photographs in his spare time. When he first came to St Barth, he knew he found the perfect place to renew and recharge, and has been lovingly photographing the island ever since. Not only in places one would expect, but looking into St Barth’s past and the still lifes that abound, from older boats to “cases” (often abandoned) and imagines their stories.