Thursday, June 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

The Agronomist

Don't cry for me, Port-au-Prince: The Agronomist profiles a true Haitian patriot

By Anthony Allison

Jonathan Demme made a cinematic dog's dinner out of Stanley Donen's charming, 1963 Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn mystery Charade with his dismal 2002 remake The Truth About Charlie. So ahead of his upcoming reworking of John Frankenheimer's classic, 1962 adaptation of Richard Condon's alarmingly prescient assassination thriller The Manchurian Candidate, there's every reason for moviegoers to be wary of the latest excess by the Silence of the Lambs Oscar-winner.

Worse still, his new documentary The Agronomist will be an instant shoo-in if the Golden Raspberry Foundation creates a new Razzie award category for Most Off-putting Movie Title.

And another strike against Demme's hagiographic profile of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique is its built-in obsolescence. Recent events in the perennially troubled Caribbean nation have rendered Demme's heartfelt chronicle, which ends in the spring of 2000, painfully out of date.

Dominique, a passionate, articulate, larger-than-life figure, would seem to be the perfect subject for an in-depth profile. But the sheer flamboyance of this engaging, bright-eyed oldster (Dominique was born in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, in 1930 and was trained as an agronomist in Paris before finding his journalistic vocation), quickly wears thin. Like some worshipper at a voodoo ceremony--the film includes archive footage of revelers enjoying mud baths and the sparkling waterfall at Saut d'Eau, Haiti's Woodstock-style voodoo festival--Demme seems totally mesmerized by Dominique's hypnotic, declamatory but painfully slow verbal delivery.

The film does offer a brief history of Haitian oppression, from Verti¸res, the 1803 battle against Napoleon's colonial forces, through the repressive 20th century regimes of Franãois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc," and the rise of firebrand cleric Jean-Bertrand Aristide. And it touches on touchy issues like the U.S. occupation (1915-34), Bill Clinton ordering the "peaceful" 1994 invasion, the CIA's duplicitous dealings with Haitian military strongmen and the shabby treatment of Haitian refugees (those who survive the hazards of fleeing in unseaworthy boats are often picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and sent back). But Demme relegates much of this tragic stuff to the background, leaving the viewer craving more in-depth, behind-the-headlines substance, and less of the freedom fighter's inimitable--if inspiring--style.