AN UNTHINKABLE PLOT?

Abstract

This chapter treats the small number of feature films from the U.S., France and elsewhere in Europe related to the Haitian Revolution. They include Emperor Jones (1933), Burn! (1969; also called Quiemada), and Toussaint Louverture (2012). The chapter draws on Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s ideas about the Haitian Revolution’s being “unthinkable” to non-Haitians; it explains how the Revolution’s significance has often been minimized even when it is shown on screen. The chapter examines how these films, to different degrees, distort the history of the Revolution, thereby illustrating defects in how slavery is remembered in the U.S., France, and elsewhere. The chapter notes that the weaknesses of these films are especially unfortunate, given funding structures that enable U.S. and European directors to make films about the Revolution more easily than can Haitians themselves.