We're Up and Running

It's official: we are now working full time to bring PITIT MWEN to the screen. I arrived last Sunday, 23 Jan 05, and this is the first time I've had the chance to write to y'all.

This past week, Sacha crafted a solid draft of the script, and we've gathered information for all of our locations, actors and crew. I am working with another producer, Regi Chevalier, who introduced Sacha to our Haitian executive producer. Regi knows the people and the language, I know what we're supposed to do, so we make a good team. We are currently working with another employee of Communication Plus (our Haitian production company) who helps us with contacting people and gathering information.

Getting in touch with people here in Haiti is a major undertaking. Most folks have cell phones, but the system is not reliable. In addition, many of the people we are trying to contact (cast & crew--mostly amateurs) live on a tight budget so their phones are often out of minutes (all cell phones in Haiti are pre-paid). We need detailed information about each cast & crew member's availability so we can make selections and develop a schedule for production. All of our actors and most of the crew have other (paying) jobs so availability is highly variable and not always flexible. We can't afford to pay them to give up their real jobs, so juggling the schedule to meet their availability is crucial.

As I continue to have interractions with more and more Haitians, some cultural idiosyncracies are starting to emerge. One may call these generalizations or stereotypes, but the pattern of behavior is constant among a diverse number of Haitians from various social classes. A thorough understanding of the culture in which I'm working is absolutely necessary if I expect to actually get something done.

I am certainly not saying, "All Haitians are like this," but some things are just too common. Herewith are some of the patterns of behavior I've noticed so far:

• Punctuality is not a high priority for most Haitians. Clocks should just show the hour of the day and a note saying, "a little after the hour." If one has an appointment at, say 10:00 AM, arriving at 10:59 AM is still considered to be on time in Haiti. Since film production lives or dies on schedule, this will be my biggest challenge.

• Haitians tend to be good natured and averse to conflict. For my purposes, this is a problem because it is near impossible to get really mad at a Haitian. Frustrated enough to pull out all of your hair, yes, but actually mad is hard. They seem to shrug off any attempt at reproach, and they never seem to disagree with what you have to tell them. As a result one cannot expect to achieve any sort of behavior modification with most Haitians. Expecting someone here to feel terribly guilty, or declare mea culpa about any particular incident, is completely fruitless. Most will smile, encourage you to do the same, and say, "That's the waay things are in Haiti." Bottom line: learn to deal with it because it ain't gonna change.

I noticed that I used "they" in my first 2 points above. This is a horrible pitfall that all visitors to a different land and culture must avoid... and I didn't. The problem is using "they" encourages one to regard those in the resident culture as "others," or those who are fundamentally different from us. The fact is that we have much more in common than we'd like to admit. The key is to dwell more on what is similar, and learn to adjust to the things we perceive as "foreign." I must remember that I'm here to work with the Haitians--they are not here to work for me.

Enough sociology for now. I'll expand on my list of Haitian cultural notes in my next post. Let's just say that I have a great deal to learn here and I'll try my best to stay open to this Haitian experience.

As far as the film is concerned.....the terror, that is inevitabily ellicited when one realizes the magnitude of a particular task, is starting to take hold of me. Just getting from one part of town to another can be an all day project. The time it takes to accomplish any task--even simple things that we take for granted in our society--cannot be predicted in advance. The guideline here is to triple how long it would take "normally", but be prepared to multiple that estimate by another factor of 3-4x. It is the only way to avoid death by frustration. There's a certain letting go that I'm learning in Haiti. Maybe I can apply it when I get back home.

Carnivale is just around the corner and pre-Carnivale celebrations have been taking place every weekend for the past month. The la grande fête begins next weekend and continues through Mardigras (Fat Tuesday) on 8 Feb 05. On Wednesday nobody works as they'll be recovering from the celebration. We hope to snag some B-roll during Carnivale, footage that we can add to our film, for the many transitions we have. I will not likely be a participant in the festivities because of my advanced age (that stuff is for the youngens) and my aversity to mosh pits of more than 10,000 people.

For those unfamiliar with film production, here's a snapshot of where are are as of 31 Jan 05. We are in pre-production whereby all the arrangements, schedules, manpower, and support systems are put into place. Our shoot start date is on or about 1 Mar 05, so we have one month to get our shit together. We're off to a good start with solid information on selecting cast & crew, as well as our equipment procurement and locations. I'll provide more detail as we attempt to accomplish each task throughout the process. Suffice it to say that we are at the very beginning and there's MUCH MORE in store for l'equipe Pitit Mwen

Ciao for now and stay tuned - Ken