The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and the New York African Film Festival present FilmAfrica, from May 28 to June 3, 2021. The cinematic companion to the 2021 virtual DanceAfrica celebration of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) showcases the best new narrative, documentary, and short films from across Africa and the diaspora, with a special focus on films from and about Haiti.

Caribbean films:

Meurtre à Pacot [Murder in Pacot]
Raoul Peck, 2014, 2 hr 10 min
Inspired by Pasolini’s classic Teorema, Raoul Peck’s intense family drama is set in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, asking fundamental questions about responsibility in the face of disaster.

In the Eye of the Spiral
Eve Blouin and Raynald Leconte, 2014, 55 min
Real Maravilloso
Raynald Leconte, 2018, 1 hr
Two documentaries touch on themes from art and spirituality to magical existence as lens into life in Haiti and Cuba.

Ayiti Mon Amour
Guetty Felin, 2016, 1 hr 28 min
Set five years after the devastating 2010 earthquake, Guetty Felin’s neorealist tale strikes a tone of healing and hope, avoiding the images of the disaster that saturated screens around the world.

Toussaint Louverture
Philippe Niang, 2012, 3 hrs
A historical action epic about the man behind the slave revolt that led to Haiti’s independence.

For more information, see https://www.bam.org/film/2021/filmafrica

[Photo above: Jimmy Jean-Louis as Toussaint Louverture.]