Thursday, January 26, 2012

Children of Haiti

The only thing that has changed is the sky.
Before the January 12, 2010, earthquake that devastated Haiti, hundreds of thousands of the "Sanguine" —  or "soulless", as the orphans and abandoned children of Haiti are called — lived by their wits on the streets. Since the earthquake, these children's dire existence has become even more tenuous. In Strange Things: Children of Haiti, produced and directed by Alexandria Hammond, three of the Sanguine, youths in Cap-Haitien in the North, tell their stories. The documentary took Hammond three years to make. What is remarkable about the film is how beautifully it contrasts the hope we can hear in the boys' voices with the wreckage of the country. Amid both beauty and ugliness, the Sanguine hold fast to their dreams, which they articulate honestly, often movingly, and with great clarity.

Here's the 2:24-minute trailer:


STRANGE THINGS (Children of Haiti) TRAILER from Strange Things Movie on Vimeo.

Other clips are available here.

Here's the longer tv version (52:16 minutes) available from PBS Video via Independent Lens:


Watch Children of Haiti on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

DVD of Children of Haiti

Children of Haiti on FaceBook

Alexandria Hammond on Twitter

Independent Lens on FaceBook and Twitter

REMEMBER HAITI!

5 comments:

Lisa W. Rosenberg said...

Maureen, thank you so much for sharing this. It is so easy, I think to get caught up with the minutia of our daily lives. A reminder of the intense pain and suffering of these beautiful young people is essential.

S. Etole said...

So much devastation amidst such beauty.

Joyce Wycoff said...

Thank you Maureen for keeping us in touch with parts of the world we might otherwise miss. You are a treasure.

Anonymous said...

i just finished watching the shorter intro video.
and i was not aware of this documentary.

Jerry said...

Thanks for this Maureen.