Project Detail

Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters

Synopsis

KANAVAL is a visually arresting feature documentary that is set in the present but tells the rich story of Haiti’s past, as we follow a number of carnival performers in the lead up to and during the annual Jacmel Mardi Gras. These performers relate their own personal histories as well as the stories of their carnival characters, representing moments and people from the distant and not so distant Haitian past.
This is not a carnival of sequins and sound systems found elsewhere in the Caribbean, but a celebration of rebellion and resistance resonating through the centuries. Whatever Jacmel carnival lacks in glitz and spectacle, it makes up for in home-grown surrealism and poetic metaphors. The lives of the indigenous Taino Indians, the Slaves’ Revolt of 1791, the establishment of Haiti as the western hemisphere’s first Black Republic in 1804, the debt forced upon Haiti by the French, and more recently state corruption are all played out using drama and costume on Jacmel’s streets during Carnival - or ‘Kanaval’ in Haitian Kreyol.

Details

Year
2022
Type of film
Features
Running time
78 min
Format
Alexi Mini LF 4k
Director
Leah Gordon, Eddie Hutton-Mills 1st Feature
Producer
Natasha Dack Ojumu
Editor
Xanna Ward Dixon
Director of Photography
Joel Honeywell
Composer
Featuring music by Sons of Kemet

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Tigerlily Productions

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