Ciné Institute
Audio Story: Ciné Institute
A Ciné Institute student interviews an aid recipient at an HIV support center in Jacmel.
Photo: Grant Fuller
Story Transcript:
Up until the earthquake, students at the Ciné Institute cranked out films like this one: a short comedy about a bunch of characters chasing after an elusive ten-dollar bill in the street. At Haiti’s only film school, the focus was on fiction.
NOCENTI: And then when the quake hit, they pretty much automatically became a newsroom, like overnight.
American filmmaker Annie Nocenti is part of the institute's rotating faculty. She watched as January 12th transformed her students' work into something very different.
In this video, shot by students in the first days after the earthquake, hundreds of Haitians shout at guards in front of a World Food Program office. They're protesting food shortages in Jacmel. The students worked quickly to post images like these on the school's website, and before they knew it, the clips had aired on CNN, PBS and the BBC.
In the days that followed, foreign aid started trickling into their town. Nocenti thinks the arrival of relief to Jacmel was a direct result of Ciné Institute's news footage. For the young students, it was a feeling they'll never forget.
NOCENTI: If they ever wondered why make movies, they know now. They really know now, because they saw their movies help people.
The students of Ciné Institute are also victims. Their classroom building collapsed and their production studio is a cracked, crumbling danger zone. A local charity has provided a small room for the school, and several film students who lost their homes now sleep on the classroom floor. First-year student Vadim Jean says making movies is good medicine – even if they're about the earthquake’s aftermath.
JEAN: Seriously, Ciné Institute is like therapy. If it wasn't for the school, I would probably be like the other people around me who are stressed, people who have lost their minds. But because I’m so caught up in my work and I love the work that I do, it's therapy.
Jean is part of a team of students organizing a regular "movie under the stars" event where they screen their work in nearby tent cities. Some students feel lucky to be alive and working at all. Rosela Charles was on her way to Port-au-Prince when the quake struck. She was the last one to get in touch with the school, and her fellow students feared the worst.
CHARLES: They actually even put my picture up on Facebook as one of the people who died because they couldn't find me. And it's not until communication was back up that I called them and told them I was okay.
She says the good news was like a shot of energy for this tight-knit group of 46 students.
CHARLES: It was so amazing 'cause everybody was so happy. And after that moment, I said I couldn't stay where I was. I had to get back. So I went back to the school and I started working again.
Today, a student crew is filming at an HIV support center in Jacmel. As a volunteer prepares to hand out personal hygiene kits, Leslie Desan moves around him with a handheld camera.
DESAN: We just want to show that these people were in a situation before that was deplorable. Now, it's become worse, or maybe it's actually become a little bit better, depending on how you look at it. Because they're getting more help now than they were before.
Pierre Bergard is another member of the crew.
BERGARD:
"What I’m doing right now is my passion," he says. "So I can't say that I’m tired. And besides, I think this is my way of helping out." Just about everything the Ciné Institute produces right now is related to the earthquake. Even so, instructor Annie Nocenti says it's not all about doom and destruction.
NOCENTI: A lot of the footage you see coming out of Haiti is problems, problems, problems. But there's tons of joy and tons of fun and tons of great things happening. And Haitians don't necessarily want to make movies about their misery.
So the students have made documentaries about things like musicians playing in displacement camps, and about artisans who continued to make traditional festive masks, despite the cancellation of carnival last month. All the hard work has catapulted the school from small-town Haiti to international recognition. In the recent 'We Are the World' video remake, all the images of Haiti were shot by Ciné Institute students. And Nocenti says the opportunities keep on coming.
NOCENTI: We started getting calls, assignments. Now we have a series on CBC-TV in Canada where every week they're going to premiere four of the films. And they especially want films of transcendence and hope.
One day, when things calm down in Haiti, the students plan to make lighthearted fiction films once again. But no one knows exactly when that might happen. For the World Vision Report, I’m Grant Fuller in Jacmel, Haiti.
Produced for the World Vision Report.