NO WHITE HERO, NO FUNDING?

Abstract

This chapter chronicles epics on the Haitian Revolution which were never made, whether proposed by African American legends such as Harry Belafonte or Danny Glover, white Hollywood legends like Gregory Peck or Anthony Quinn, or leading world cinema directors like Euzhan Palcy. Some of these films aimed to be biopics of Haitian king Henri Christophe, while others would have centered on Toussaint Louverture or Jean-Jacques Dessalines. However, because the Revolution’s storyline involves violence by African-descended revolutionaries, without obvious white heroes, the chapter argues, these projects failed to obtain funding. The chapter situates the problem of making a Haitian Revolution epic within Hollywood’s more general difficulties depicting Black History.