Moving Images Distribution has announced that Haiti Betrayed will have its theatrical premiere at VIFF Centre in Vancouver on January 28, 2023. The documentary feature, from award-winning Nanaimo-based filmmaker and photojournalist Elaine Brière (Bitter Paradise: The Sell-out of East Timor), outlines the role Canada had in the 2004 coup d’état in Haiti that brought an end to a decade of democracy and progressive reforms.
In Haiti Betrayed, which has been endorsed by Noam Chomsky among others, Brière reveals how Canada, in contravention of international law, allied with the US and France to overturn Haiti’s democratically elected government, playing a strategic military role in the removal of a democratically elected government. Seven years in the making, Brière’s film meticulously reconstructs Canada’s role in the removal of Haitian president, Jean Bertrand Aristide; the immediate bloody aftermath, and the manipulated elections that followed. Canadian leaders continue to support an illegitimate regime rejected by the Haitian people.
Haiti Betrayed highlights a countrywide people’s movement for a more just and equitable society. It is a searing indictment of the Canadian government’s complicity in the international oppression of this long-suffering nation. Haiti is in the throes of an uprising against the current government, installed with the support of Canada and the US. Brière’s film reveals that the seeds of the current crisis were sown in the coup d’état backed by Canada in 2004, part of a long history of foreign interference in Haiti.
The film was shot in Haiti and Canada and features interviews with Patrick Elie, Secretary of State for Public Security (1994-1995), Brian Concannon, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Peter Hallward Kingston University, London England, Jean St. Vil Haitian-Canadian Political Commentator, Bobby Duval Businessman Founder, l’athlétique d’Haïti, Garry Auguste, Haitian-Canadian Former National Haitian Police Officer and Sue Montgomery Reporter for the Montreal Gazette.
Haiti Betrayed was the opening night film at the International Political Film Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October 2022. The film was written, directed, and produced by Elaine Brière, edited by Mary Ungerleider, narrated by Gabrielle Rose, sound design by Jeremy Therrien, music by David F. Ramos, principal cinematography by Elaine Brière and additional cinematography by Yvon Villius.
Brière does not shy away from the truth or criticism of Canadian foreign policy in her work. Her first documentary, Bitter Paradise: The Sell-out of East Timor, revealed the shameless international support for a predatory military regime while chronicling her twenty-year personal political activism journey, from the villages of East Timor to the halls of the United Nations. The film won Best Political Documentary at the 1997 HOT DOCS! festival and Production Excellence award at Seattle Women in Film in 1998. It was the first film made in Canada that criticized Canadian foreign policy.
The film will be screened at the VIFF Centre, Vancity Theatre – 1181 Seymour St. Vancouver BC on January 28, 2023, from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
Source/images provided courtesy of Nicola Pender
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