The Indie Auteur Musings on filmmaking by Stephan Vladimir Bugaj.

Help Haitian Film Students

Haitian film students who survived the earthquate are attempting to make a documentary of the tragedy from a Haitian perspective — about Haitians by Haitians. Not only will this help them continue to live their lives, and pursue their dreams, it is also a positive action they can take to help their country recover.

Their current project can illustrate the power of film to tell the story of underrepresented people, and underscore how filmmaking can be a part of the response to a major disaster in terms of both short-term awareness building, and longer-term documentation that both tells an important story and assists in the analysis of how to better prepare for future disasters.

These students study at The Ciné Institute, based in Jacmel on Haiti’s southern coast. The school was completely destroyed in Tuesday’s earthquake. The Ciné Institute provided Haitian youth with film education, technical training, and media related micro enterprise opportunities.

If you’d like to donate money or equipment to help them keep shooting, and rebuild their school, click here.

(I heard about this opportunity to help Haitian film students through an e-mail sent by Peter Marshall of actioncutprint.com.)