Haiti Film Festival raising proceeds for relief efforts

The Haiti Film Festival will premier Sunday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The event will bring Haitian films, filmmakers and activists together in Bloomington for the first time.

Sponsored by a partnership between Bloomington for Haiti and La Casa Latino Culture Center, all proceeds from the $5 cover charge will go to Haiti relief efforts.

The Film Festival is the brainchild of Bloomington for Haiti blog founder and graduate student Kat Forgacs, whose grassroots program uses social media and public promotion to keep Haiti in the spotlight. Forgac’s blog features an events page listing Haiti fundraisers and programs in the Bloomington area.

The country is still struggling to rebuild after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake ravaged the island nation, Forgacs said.
“When the earthquake happened, I was just riveted,” Forgacs said. “My heart
was breaking.”

This response drove Forgacs to action. During her time as an undergraduate, she researched the island of Saint Lucia.

This led her to take a class in Haitian Creole and gain an interest in Haitian people
and culture.

“I just fell in love with what I was learning about Haiti,” Forgacs said.

Forgacs said her experiences with Haitians have always been positive. Her initial reaction was to help these people by playing a few films during Haiti Awareness Week in November, the first joint effort between La Casa and Bloomington For Haiti. As the number of films grew, they decided to extend the project into a full festival.

“Film kind of helps to personalize things that are abstract or distant and helps you understand them in a way that you might if you were actually there,” Forgacs said.

Question-and-answer sessions with Haitian directors themselves will offer even more insight into the subject at the event.

La Casa Director Lillian Casillas said both the festival and Haiti Awareness Week appeal to La Casa’s broader educational mission.

“It’s something that people are interested in, whether folks identify as Latino or not. It’s something we can try to provide our support to and educate,” Casillas said.