THE RISING GENERATION, TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE, AND THE PROBLEM OF FUNDING

Abstract

This chapter focuses on films about the Haitian Revolution by emerging Haitian filmmakers, working with tiny budgets. It analyzes a trio of documentaries on Toussaint Louverture from Haitian filmmakers Maksaens Denis, Kendy Vérilus and Pierre Lucson Bellegarde. Drawing on the contents of these films, as well as interviews with the directors, the chapter notes differences between their approaches to the Revolution and those of non-Haitian films on the subject, especially concerning the extent to which France’s Revolution prompted Haiti’s. The chapter also discusses how funding and infrastructure challenges have hindered the growth of Haitian cinema, and it introduces other digital genres, such as animation, through which young Haitians have depicted colonial Saint-Domingue and the Revolution. Finally, the chapter examines thwarted efforts by Haitian filmmakers to make epics on the Revolution.