Imaginaires Documentaires | Cinémas haïtiens

Thursday, September 24, 2026 · 8:30 p.m.

Editorial

Here we are, back for a second series of screenings exploring the diversity of forms in nonfiction cinema. This year, we wanted to take you to Haiti—a country dear to us, which we feel it is essential to learn to see through the eyes of its filmmakers.

We believe it is necessary to make heard the voices of those who tell their own realities, with the legitimacy of lived experience, and who are committed to conveying these contexts in all their complexity and with respect for the dignity of the people they film.

We believe in the necessity of a cinema that rejects voyeurism and the sensationalist, poverty-focused gaze that turns suffering into spectacle; a cinema that shows a society of overflowing vitality without concealing the material and political difficulties faced by its population.

A cinema that takes into account the forms of resistance deeply rooted in the traditional daily life of this country. A cinema that nurtures the spirit of “KONBIT,” a relational practice inherited from communal farming traditions of mutual assistance with agricultural work and the sharing of harvests. In Konbit, individual existence is validated through collective action; the “I” fulfills itself because it takes part in the effort of the “We.”

The Haiti sold to us by the traditional Western media is a Haiti punctuated by words such as: small country, chaos, gang hell, crime, abyss… An endless portrait of a Mad Max film, or of the poorest country in the world. Without ever saying that it is a country deliberately impoverished. Impoverished by a double debt, impoverished by international interference in state affairs, impoverished by the ogres of imperialism. Because for these ogres, saying that Haiti is an impoverished and plundered country means identifying themselves as guilty. Because not saying it means deliberately choosing not to question the geopolitical labyrinth in which Haiti has found itself for two centuries.

Through this day of screenings, we hope, together with the Marseille audience, to create a space for meeting, exchange and sharing around works that shift our perspective and invite us to discover Haiti as told by those who have experienced it and who continue to live it every day.

The Noctules association

Brave

by Wilmarc Val | 2021 | France, Haiti | 25 min

When a Haitian voodoo priestess, a Mambo, dies, it is up to the children to celebrate the deity she served. It is time for my mother to return to the country to perform this ritual in honor of my deceased grandmother.

Twa Fèy

by Éléonore Coyette | Haiti/Belgium | 2021 | 27 min

Esther is six years old and lives the carefree life of a little girl until her father abuses her. A small music box then appears in her life and never leaves it. As she tries to get rid of it, she discovers her mother’s; but her mother seems unable to see either her daughter’s music box or her own… until she meets Farah. Three Leaves. Three stories of women exploring the roots of identity, resistance and sisterhood.

La danse vodouisante, porte-parole d’une histoire

by Jenipher Whyshlliadha Charles | 2020 | Haiti | 16 min

This film grew out of field research conducted by Jenipher Whyshlliadha Charles in Haiti’s Artibonite department. Through this approach, the director portrays voodoo as the bearer of a legacy of cultural and identity-based resistance. This work stems from deeply personal research focused on the figure of her father, who had hidden his voodoo practice from her because it was widely stigmatized at the time.

En mil pedazos (Fragmented)

by Feguenson Hermogène | 2023 | Cuba | 13 min

At the center of Bauta stands a statue of a man holding the remains of a broken chain. It forms a fragment of the memory of an Afro-Cuban community that has lived in the city since the colonial era. Among public buildings, religious and folkloric practices, and family memories, a shared place of memory survives, scattered here and there under the influence of historical circumstances.

Following a group of seven young professional dancers, this film, whose narrative takes on a hybrid character, seeks to reconstruct this memory—or perhaps to shed light on what remains of this painful history, which is connected to that of other countries that, like Cuba, experienced the inhuman system of slavery.

Practical information

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The box office opens 30 minutes before the start of each screening.

We operate on a pay-what-you-can basis (each person pays what they want/can/feel is fair). We believe in pay-what-you-can pricing as a way for everyone to experience what interests them and to value the work accomplished as they see fit.

Membership in the association is required to attend the screenings. It is available from €8 and valid for one calendar year. It is possible to take out your membership online. For those who wish and are able to do so, membership also allows you to support us by adding an amount of your choice.

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All Imaginaires documentaires screenings

Imaginaires Documentaires is a monthly event at Videodrome 2, devoted to screening recent contemporary documentaries. It aims to circulate noteworthy and remarkable works that would not otherwise find their way into cinemas. To create a special opportunity for exchange, the screenings take place in the presence of the filmmakers.