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Tension in its making

By DAVID ADAMS
Published April 29, 2007

The story, if he could get it, would be an almost exclusive insight into a world few had ever seen, or could begin to understand.

As Haiti began to crumble under the rule of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, documentary director Asger Leth went into the middle of its most violent neighborhood. He connected with two brothers who each led a ruthless gang in a lawless land and persuaded them to tell their story, which he captured in Ghosts of Cite Soleil.

Through his father, Jergen, a filmmaker who has a home in Haiti, Leth learned about a relief worker, Eleonore "Lele" Senlis, and her involvement with the gangs.

"Thanks to my father I got to know the place well. I understood the politics, " Leth said. "No one was telling the story of the gangs."

There was good reason. For some months in late 2003 and early 2004 Cite Soleil had become a virtual no-go area, cut off from the rest of the city by barricades and turf-proud gang leaders.

"They were fighting for the president, and they knew if he left there would be a price to pay, " Leth said.

Though the film is being released by Sony BMG, it retains its raw quality. The story is told almost entirely through the voices of the brothers, with no narration.

The drama is so gripping and the camera work so upclose, it has the feel of a feature film. In fact, it is the product of hundreds of hours of film shot during the months surrounding Aristide's fall in February 2004.

Defenders of Aristide say Ghosts sensationalizes events, focusing too narrowly on the gangs. "Bily and 2Pac were not representative figures, " said Kim Ives, a U.S.-based journalist and filmmaker. "The film only shows the most chest-bumping, crazy thugs. It makes no effort to show the politically and socially conscious side of Cite Soleil."

Ives said he recognizes that the government may have gotten its hands burned by its ties to the gangs. "They should have tried to deal with them in a more organized and proactive way to defend constitutional rule, " he said. "Instead, it was done in a very haphazard, slapdash way."

Critics of Aristide say that his "slapdash" management amounted to a license to kill.

The drama and violence shown in the film is accompanied by a haunting soundtrack by Haitian superstar rapper Wyclef Jean. Jean, who helped finance the film, also makes an appearance, rhapsodizing about the musical genius of the brother known as 2Pac, who raps a tune for him during a phone call to New York.

"Rap music influenced people deep down there, " Jean said. "They will live by it and die by it. It ain't no Hollywood movie."

[Last modified April 28, 2007, 18:55:03]