Last night was our fourth outdoor movie screening of the Haitian Presidential debates, this time in camp Carrefour, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Mayor of Port-au-Prince invited us to screen the debates within the city courtyard, and the fire department assisted in security and setting up the screening. We have a few more inflatable movie screenings of the first round of debates, and then we’ll be showing the second round in advance of the elections on Sunday.

The local production crew is learning the OAC Cinebox outdoor movie system well, and set up last night without much assistance from the OAC technicians. The portable movie screen, outdoor projector, and outdoor speaker system were setup with ease. Overall the production went very well, and several hundred Camp residents attended and watched the debates.

Today will be screening the debates at camp Champ-de-Mars, right in downtown Port-au-Prince. We anticipate thousands of locals to be in attendance at tonight’s screenings, and we look forward to updating the blog with images and a report with how things went. Below are some images from last night’s outdoor movie screening at Camp Carrefour.

Today marked the third day of the screening of the first round of the presidential debates, today in camp Villaembetta in Port-au-Prince Haiti. The outdoor movie screening was as successful as days past, as we worked with FilmAid International and crews of local Haitians in producing the event. Each day’s screening requires meeting with the local camp leaders and receiving permission to screen the debates, as well as arranging for a proper location for the setup of the inflatable movie screen and system equipment.

Camp Villaembetta was about 45 minutes away from our operational base, and we began setup around 3 PM. For a moment we thought the weather would bring rain to our event, and so we were prepared with tarps and plastic to cover the outdoor projector and outdoor speaker system if it started to pour. Luckily, we only saw a very slight drizzle, and all of the equipment remained safe and in working order.

In addition to screening the presidential debates, we also showed several films about voting, hygiene, and camp life.  The residents of camp Villaembetta were particularly excited to view their favorite Haitian comedian after the debates and short films. There were times when the entire audience erupted in laughter and cheer as (ironically), the comedian pretended in a skit, to be a presidential candidate, and found himself in several silly situations.

Overall, we are very happy with how the screenings are going. We are looking forward to implementing a few additional media items to the programming. Tomorrow we will have a live video camera on hand, as we will be inviting residents of the camp to come up in front of the audience and share their stories.  We will also feature a live storybook reading by one of our lead technicians who has been working with the camps for months in reading books to the children. We are excited to update the blog with how tomorrow’s events turn out.  We are thrilled that the technology of Open Air Cinema’s outdoor movie systems can bring educational opportunities and a moment of joy to the residents of the refugee camps whose lives were devastated in the earthquake that struck Haiti over a year ago.

Tonight we completed our second day of screening the Haitian presidential debates via outdoor cinema in camp Accra, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The outdoor movie screening was a huge success, with an estimated 2,500 audience members in attendance. The event started off by showing the short film we created in camp Accra itself. The audience was thrilled to see themselves on the big screen, as the film highlighted many of the community members and their daily lives. The crowd erupted in cheers as one resident after another was highlighted in the documentary. We are going to continue to screen the short film at the beginning of each outdoor movie event in the camps over the next week.

For tonights screening, we used the OAC Cinebox system again, and it worked flawlessly, helping us to have a successful screening. Local Haitian animators or MCs led the event with charisma, keeping the audience excited throughout the screenings. We ended the evening off with a screening of a short film by a comedian that is loved my many Haitians. The crowd erupted with laughter and cheer as they watched one of Haiti’s favorite comedies.

We have been training local crews to assist in the production of the outdoor movie screenings, as we have several days next week where we’ll be producing multiple events in one night. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but look forward to continuing to promote democracy and safety in the camps of residents whose lives have been devastated by the earthquake of more than a year ago.

Below are some images of tonight’s outdoor movie screening at camp Accra in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Young residents of camp Accra in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Yesterday we continued our filming of camp Accra in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Open Air Cinema and FilmAid International produced a film of camp Accra to be shown tonight as we screen the presidential debates to the camp. We will continue to screen the footage before each of the outdoor movie events over then next week as we work with the different camps around Port-au-Prince.

Here are some images of camp Accra as we gathered footage and sound for the film. Keep checking back on the blog over the next week, as we’ll be updating as we continue each day.

Screening of the Haitian Presidential debates at Camp Lycee Jacques in Port-au-Prince Haiti. March 10, 2011

Tonight was the first outdoor movie screening of the Haitian presidential Debates at Camp Lycee Jacques 1er in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Overall the evening was very successful. Stuart Farmer from Open Air Cinema led productions operations and we were able to hire a team of local Haitian assistants who have worked with FilmAid International for past projects in Haiti. The Haitian Presidential outdoor movie screenings were funded by USAID, and part of the project is to employ locals in the operation, therefore giving back to the community in a more significant way.

Micheal Morgenstern, operations manager from FilmAid was also present to assist in making a successful screening. The team arrived to the camp at noon, and began to setup the inflatable movie screen system near the entrance of the camp where there was a large clearing. Yesterday we rented a van to transport and store all the equipment in, and we decided it would be best to project out of the back of the van for security and ease of use (see image below). The Open Air Cinema Cinebox system made setup easy, as the projector and audio visual console was all setup and ready to go. The setup went so quickly and efficiently, that we actually had a couple hours to spare before screening time at 6pm.

In addition to the outdoor movie screenings of the Haitian presidential debates, we screened several instructional videos about hygiene and camp life. We documented the day’s events through photography below. We will continue to update the blog with our activities in Haiti in the coming days.

Residents of Camp Lycee Jacques in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

OAC's Stuart Farmer works with local Haitians to produce screenings of the 2011 Haitian Presidential debates in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Camp Lycee Jacques residents wait for the screening of the debates to begin.

Camp Lycee Jacques residents wait for the screening of the debates.

Camp Lycee Jacques residents watch the Haitian presidential debates.

Camp Lycee Jacques residents watch the Haitian presidential debates.

Projection of the presidential debates out of the rear of our rented van.

Camp Accra in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 9, 2011

We are working hard to get ready for our first outdoor movie screening which will happen tomorrow evening here in Port-au-Prince. As many outdoor movie enthusiasts know, producing an outdoor movie event can be a bit of work, especially as you round up all the necessary equipment and make sure everything is ready to go.  We will be using an Open Air Cinema Cinebox Pro outdoor movie system for our first screening, and so that should make the work very manageable.

We are working with a local freelance photographer and videographer to produce a short film about camp Accra, one of the tent camps where many Haitians are now living after their homes were destroyed in the earthquake more than a year ago.  The film will be shown at the beginning of the outdoor movie screenings over the next week, and will highlight life in camp Accra. We took a few photographs as well, and thought we’d share them here on the blog. Keep coming back to visit the blog, as we’ll be updating our progress as the project moves forward over the next two weeks.

Camp Accra in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 9, 2011

Camp Accra football match in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 9, 2011

Camp Accra resident in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 9, 2011

Kanaval goers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Notice the fallen presidential palace in the background.

Open Air Cinema’s Stuart Farmer arrived in Haiti last Friday to make preparations for live outdoor movie screenings of the Haitian presidential debates in advance of the elections on the 20th of March. Open Air Cinema is working with our long time partner, Film Aid International, whose mission is to project hope and change lives through the power of film. The presidential debates will be screened over the next week and a half (utilizing the technology of Open Air Cinema’s outdoor movie systems) throughout a handful of the tent-camps where many Haitians are still living after the immense destruction from the earthquake over a year ago.

Stuart Farmer has been working to make preparations for the screenings with the director of Film Aid International, Liz Manne, who was recently appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. We arrived just in time for Kanaval (the Haitian Mardi Gras), and made our way through downtown Port Au Prince to check out the festivities. Below are some images of what we saw. We will keep you updated as we continue to prepare for the outdoor movie screenings!

Gecko on the outside of our hotel lobby.

Fat Tuesday Kanaval goers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 8, 2011.

Fat Tuesday Kanaval goer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 8, 2011

A band plays live music atop a giant Digicel vehicle during Kanaval in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. March 8, 2011

FilmAid provides the children of Haiti what many doctors can not bring earthquake survivors, a moment to forget about the pain and suffering the last six months has brought. Dr. Jon Lapook reports.

Running until April 11^th, the Cinépolis Foundation’s social outreach program entitled “Let’s all go to Cinépolis Haiti” will screen 11 movies on donated Christie digital cinema projectors reaching more than 70,000 people devastated by the February 12^th earthquake.”Let’s all go to Cinépolis Haiti” is a joint effort between the Cinépolis Foundation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, as well as the support of the Ministry of Culture of Haiti, FilmAid International, DOR Internacional and Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. This partnership aids in the reconstruction of Haiti by promoting positive messages and by bringing a moment of relaxation and joy as the country continues its recovery.

Lorena Guillén-Laris, Executive Director of Cinépolis Foundation notes: ‘Let’s all go to Cinépolis Haiti’ seeks to provide glimmers of hope and moments of family life that contribute to the emotional state of our Haitian brothers and sisters. We want to laugh, dream and be inspired by positive messages. The short films will encourage them to be strong and move forward.

The movies will be shown nightly on a 15m (49.2ft) inflatable screen in shelters located throughout Port au Prince and surrounding areas and will include both short and feature length, Hollywood movies. The short films theming on survival, unity and civic participation include: “I’m Still Alive”, “Grand Mère”, “Mechanistic” and “Volunteer”, as well as, shorts recorded by survivors of the earthquake. The full feature movies include: “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Ice Age”, “Ice Age: The Meltdown” and “Night at the Museum” – the last three are being supplied by 20th Century Fox. The long and short films are spoken or translated into French and Creole, the national languages of Haiti.

Read more….

Children cross a puddle after heavy rains at a makeshift tent camp in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince. As many as 500 children will show up at a film screening provided by a British group. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

In the months following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, relief organizations have been clamoring to provide basic necessities like food, clean water, medical supplies and shelter to Haitians affected by the disaster.

Instead of supplies, one two-man volunteer team is providing something altogether different for Haitian children. The Haiti Kids Kino Project, sponsored by the U.K.-based nonprofit art center Cube Cinema, is providing outdoor film screenings for Haitian communities. So far, volunteers Marko Wilkinson and David Fitzsimmons have shown popular films such as “Up” and “WALL-E” to hundreds of Haitian kids.

For the children, many of whom were traumatized by the earthquake and the experience of losing family members, friends and homes, attending a film screening is a welcome break from reality.

Read more…

Hundreds of alfresco cinema-goers in Haiti watch a feature film shown as part of a project for youngsters set up by Bristol’s Cube Cinema. Photograph: Cube Cinema

The Bafta award-winning director, Cube volunteer and one of those behind the Haiti Kids Kino Project, Esther May Campbell, said they hoped to offer traumatised youngsters a brief escape.”This is the most direct humanitarian response we can offer,” she said. “When children who have suffered these kinds of traumas have nothing to do, desperation and anxiety levels shoot through the roof, she told the Guardian newspaper. “The Cube has skills, passion and networks, enabling us to create a mobile cinema for young people, intending to offer community, hope and distraction.Jungle Book, WALL-E and Up, and European classics such as Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon are being screened alongside old favourites such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films, Looney Tunes cartoons and even the Wombles.

The films were carefully selected so that children who can’t speak English can still enjoy them. As many as 500 children have seen the films. Films in the country’s official language, French, such as Le Ballon d’Or, a film about a talented footballer set in a poor west African community, have gone down especially well. Another highlight has been the audience clapping along to Vic Reeves singing Life’s a Treat from Aardman’s Shaun the Sheep. “There’s more demand than we can supply,” said Marko Wilkinson who volunteers on the project in Haiti, along with his The Cube colleague, David Fitzsimmons. Besides taking the films to Haiti, the pair has also brought postcards from children in Bristol holding up messages that say: “Bon jou” – “Hello” in Haitian Creole.Giving children in disaster zones something to do is really important, says the United Nations. “The worst thing for children in natural disasters isn’t just the damage that they see around them, but also when they sit around with nothing to do,” said UN emergencies communication officer UN Patrick McCormick. “It ramps up anxiety and despair, and that’s what does even more damage.”

Hayley Jarvis

Source-http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/film-shows-for-haiti-earthquake-children

One moonless inky night this week, 4,000 Haitians gathered along their town’s waterfront, sat down and spent the next three hours lost in a large window of light.

A giant outdoor movie screen flickered before them, transporting them into other people’s lives and to faraway places they’d never otherwise see.

Haiti might be in its darkest, most anarchic hour, with murderous gangs besieging its capital and its economy in shreds, but in this peaceful seaside city, a cultural awakening is under way. Every day this week, films from Haiti and the world have been screened around the city as part of a wildly ambitious international film festival that has already achieved its founders’ most basic aim: to infuse a stricken people with hope.

The Jacmel International Film Festival, which began July 9 and ends today, was different from most festivals of its kind. Films were shown three times daily in makeshift theaters, their crumbling walls patched with plywood, and at nighttime on a 18-by-25-foot screen on the city’s wharf. Every screening was free, and without exception, packed by locals.

The incongruity between this movie festival in Jacmel and the horrors two hours north in Port-au-Prince, where a Haitian journalist’s mutilated body was found Thursday, was lost on no one.

”There’s always a looming sense of disaster from Port-au-Prince, and at some points, some members of our team were questioning whether we should do this,” said David Belle, 33, one of the festival’s founders. “But I felt it was more important than ever.”

Belle, an American filmmaker who was romanced by Haiti 13 years ago, dreamed up the idea of hosting a festival here with a Jacmel native, Patrick Boucard, 49, in 2003.

Boucard is from a prominent Jacmel family that still owns some of the largest buildings in town. After hopscotching around the United States in his youth, Boucard returned home with his wife, Kate, two years ago to open an arts center by the sea.

”I love this area, and I love the people, and I want to expand the horizons of Haitians,” Boucard said. “In a selfish way, I’m preserving my environment.”

AN OASIS

If Port-au-Prince, with its kidnappings and bloodthirstiness, is Haiti at its most hellish, Jacmel is its oasis. The city is impoverished but beautiful in its near ruin, lined with grand, decrepit French colonial buildings that give it the feel of a lost New Orleans. Whenever Port-au-Prince descended into chaos, as it has again now, Jacmel kept its peace, largely because its people closely watch newcomers and manage to keep any probable troublemakers out.

Boucard’s art center offers training to self-taught artists, but Boucard and Belle yearned to bring the world to Jacmel. Fifty percent of Haitians are illiterate; few can afford televisions, and even fewer can afford the luxury of a movie. Anyway, few theaters are operating.

For the first film festival, held in July 2004, Boucard and Belle scraped together $120,000 and corralled 85 Haitian documentaries, shorts and feature films. They convinced American companies to rent them equipment and rigged up a screen at the town’s crossroads.

Half the town showed up for opening night, but the next day, the festival’s smaller venues were curiously vacant. After some sleuthing, Belle discovered locals couldn’t fathom entering a private venue without paying. ”They didn’t know what a film festival was,” Belle said. So he visited key people in each neighborhood to invite one and all. From then on, the screenings overflowed, and after the festival ended, locals dogged Belle and Boucard, asking when the festival was coming back.

It nearly didn’t. As Port-au-Prince’s violence spun out of control, Belle and Boucard worried about visitors’ safety and feared that the thousands of locals gathered for the nightly film would provide an easy target should the capital’s gang warfare bleed out. But Jacmel had opened its tiny airport, which meant outsiders could avoid the often perilous road from Port-au-Prince to town. In April, as Haiti’s prospects plummeted, the pair decided the festival was a go.

Help poured in. After some persuading, such major studios as HBO, Dreamworks and Lions Gate lent the festival major releases — among them Hotel Rwanda and The Motorcycle Diaries — for free. Friends threw fundraisers and showed up in Jacmel to work without pay. A young local theater group dubbed a dozen movies in Creole, recorded in a hastily erected sound room. Fat donations came from the French and Spanish embassies, Haiti’s Ministry of Culture and Crowing Rooster Arts, which Belle runs with filmmaker Katharine Kean, who also owns Tap Tap Restaurant in South Beach.

In the end, the festival offered 100 films from 30 countries and, at least in the daytime, couldn’t match local demand.

”We cannot travel; we don’t have the passports or money or visas to get to those places,” said Fenton Stevenson, 27, a festivalgoer from Jacmel. “This way, these places come to us.”

Directors from the Caribbean, South Africa and New York flew in to host free filmmaking and acting workshops that immediately ran out of space. Others, though, stayed away, fearing for their safety. By late this week, security guards were installed at the smaller daytime venues, because too many people were trying to shoehorn themselves in. Near bedlam ensued outside a jammed screening of Sometimes in April, a film about Rwanda by the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck.

SOME RISKS

”This is very new for Haiti, and I am surprised they had the guts to do it,” said Peck, who hosted a filmmaking workshop. “It’s like a giant public school. It’s another kind of food.”

But with every advance comes risk. One of co-founder Belle’s greatest fears is that after bringing the world to Jacmel and teaching its youth to make films and project their realities on screen, people here will feel even more trapped and limited by their country’s deepening failures.

Yet for one young Haitian at least, the festival offered sorely needed, if temporary, liberation: It lifted him out of the beleaguered Haiti of now into the Haiti that could be.

”There are young people here who are full of hope, and every day, at every moment of their lives, they think about what’s to come for Haiti,” said Jean Auguste, 22, a student who drank in the festival workshops.

”This helps to forget their daily life problems and helps them imagine what they can do tomorrow, for their families and their country,” Auguste said.