THE AGRONOMIST: DON'T MISS IT!

Last year before our exploration to Haiti's Central Plateau region, our team watched a movie called The Agronomist.  It tells the true story of, Jean Dominique, a Haitian agronomist converted to passionate journalist and crusader for democracy against dictatorship during the Duvalier years.   The movie is going to be shown twice this month before the next FHC Haiti trip.

When:           7:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 16
                      7:00 p.m. Sunday, October 20

Where:          Forest Hill Church, Fellowship Hall, South

Admission:    All are welcome.  It is free.

Rating:           PG-13 (Some violence and brief nudity)

See the trailer here.

Jean Dominique and his wife owned and operated Haiti’s oldest free radio station.  They broadcast news that exposed the injustice, oppression, corruption and poverty in a country under the control of ruthless dictatorship.  They broadcast in Kreyol, the language of ordinary Haitians.  They advocated democratic government and free, fair elections.  

Jean Dominique was in exile in New York for much of the ‘80s and ‘90s.  He was assassinated in 2000 after returning to his country and his radio station.  The murder was a political assassination professionally done.  No one was convicted or arrested for this killing.  There were reports from Haiti suggesting the CIA and the United States were behind it.  At the time, U.S. policy was seeking to influence the timing and outcome of elections in Haiti in a way that would diminish the hopes and demands of Haiti's poor and rural population, the very people who listened fervently to the news and music from Dominique's Radio Haiti.

 One of the film's producers is Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-born author and MacArthur Genius Award winner, currently recognized as one the most important Haitian writers of all time.  Among her publications is a collection of essays entitled Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist At Work.  Danticat took her title from Albert Camus’ last public lecture, “Create Dangerously,” in which Camus declared, “For the person with creative potential there is no wholeness except in using it.” Danticat's accounts of Haitians who were tortured and killed during the Duvalier regime include the story of Jean Dominique.   She knew and revered the agronomist turned political advocate.  Like Jean Dominique, Danticate fled into exile with part of her family at age 12.  Like Dominque and so many Haitian exiles, she portrays an insistent desire for a homeland in which ordinary people can live free of fear and free from domination by self-interested foreign powers.

If you care about Haiti and its people, it is important to know the story of Jean Dominique and what that story means in Haiti's history.  Come see and discuss the movie on the 16th or the 20th of this month.

--kjl