Much like this year’s coup d’etat in Haiti, The Agronomist has not yet received the attention that it deserves. Jonathan Demme’s (Silence of the Lambs) obtusely named documentary highlights the remarkable life of the late Jean Dominique, the founder and long-time voice of Radio Haiti.

Dominique is the wiry and charismatic star of the film, and he expounds on both his and his country’s life over a series of interviews conducted in both Haiti and New York, which was his home in exile. The radio producer and personality–whose professional training was as an agronomist – recounts his experiences as a cultural worker and dissident, primarily under the U.S.-backed dictatorships of the Duvaliers, ‘Papa Doc’ Francois and ‘Baby Doc’ Jean-Claude.

To understand how a film about a radio producer and deejay can be so fascinating is to begin to understand the tortured history of Haiti, the Caribbean nation that shares the island of Hispanolia with the Dominican Republic. Haiti was the first country in the world to abolish slavery, as the result of a victorious uprising against the forces of Napolean’s France, and indeed the 1804 revolution shook the foundations of Europe’s empires. Eduardo Galeano recently encapsulated Haiti’s 200-year plight:

For two centuries it has suffered scorn and punishment. Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner and champion of liberty at the same time, warned that Haiti had created a bad example and argued it was necessary to "confine the plague to the island." His country heeded him. It was sixty years before the U.S. granted diplomatic recognition to this freest of nations. (The Progressive, June 2004)

In addition to the punishment of economic and diplomatic isolation, Haiti suffered for the insolence of asserting its independence by repeated invasions and occupations, most often by the ascendant empire of the 20th century, the United States. Jean Dominique describes being a four-year old, witnessing his father’s rage at the presence of U.S. Marines in Haiti. That U.S. occupation lasted from 1915 to 1934.

Dominique inherited his father’s nationalist sentiments, and fused them with his own thirst for culture and desire for human rights. Together with other young filmmakers, he founded a cinema club that produced and showed some of the country’s first feature films. The club flourished for a time, but was shut down by the regime.

Establishing Radio Haiti would prove to be an even riskier endeavor, and at first the station made only very subtle critiques of the country’s repressive military government. Jean Dominique, in one scene, explains how his listeners were galvanized by reports of foreign affairs –the 1979 revolutions in Nicaragua and Iran – and how they instinctively equated the deposed Somoza and the Shah with the hated Duvalier. More overt criticism, or simply fairly reporting the deplorable facts of corruption and abuse by the elites in Haiti, would lead him to two exiles and, ultimately, his murder in 2000.

In Haiti, today, a new “transitional” regime is in place, maintained by military forces from Canada, the U.S., France and Brazil, among others. The elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown on February 29 of this year, and reports continue to come out of heavy repression against his Lavalas Party supporters and those opposing the occupation.

The film ends with Jean Dominique’s killing, but contains important background for understanding contemporary events. Aristide emerged as a major political factor, and friend and ally of Jean Dominique, in the late 1980s. A liberation theologian, his strident denunciations of poverty and injustice in Haiti led him to an overwhelming victory in 1990 elections. His attempts to implement real change led to a military coup after just months in power. Demme shows us Aristide over time: a young rebel, a triumphant leader, and, after his return from exile, a compromised if still popular politician. Never a servile intellectual, a memorable scene plays a radio interview in which Jean Dominique excoriates Aristide for corruption.

The Agronomist will certainly rank as one of Jonathan Demme’s least watched films, and that is unfortunate. The director who brought us that unforgettable villain, Hannibal Lector, has brought to screen a truly memorable sympathetic character in Jean Dominique. Through his colorful, passionate and yet non-didactic words, we also gain important insights into Haiti’s long struggle for self-determination and justice.

A friend of mine who was delighted by the film – unfortunately, it’s rare to find someone who has seen the movie at all – offered a succinct explanation for the lack of notoriety achieved by this timely documentary: “Great film, bad title.” Jean Dominique was indeed much more than an agronomist, and his life story deserves to be known, especially given today’s situation in Haiti. One can only wish that the courageous voice of Radio Haiti’s founder was still on the air, reporting and denouncing the latest occupation of his beloved country.

StopWar.ca is hosting a special forum on Haiti this Thursday, July 15, 7p.m. at SFU Harbour Centre, featuring presentations by Haitian activist Jean Saint-Vil and local journalist Anthony Fenton.

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