The Agronomist
Starring:Jean Dominique, Ronald Reagan, Aboudja
Director: Jonathan Demme
Studio: New Line Home Video
Product Type: DVD
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Jonathan Demme has always had a thing for Haiti. With The Agronomist, the Oscar winning director of The Silence of the Lambs takes his Haitian passion for a serious and considerably more personal turn in a documentary profiling journalist and radio pioneer Jean Dominique. Demme first became intrigued by Dominique in 1991 when he undertook a series of informal video interviews. He returned to his subject many times over the next decade, sometimes in Haiti and sometimes during extended periods when Dominique was in the U.S., a political exile from his homeland. When Demme began his documentary, he certainly couldn't have planned for its end--the assassination of Dominique outside his Port au Prince radio station in 2000. As The Agronomist makes clear, it was a blatantly political crime and one that remains unsolved. The title refers to Dominique's original vocation helping farmers in the rural communities of Haiti. He came from the upper classes, but continued his battles in representing his country's poor and dispossessed even as his career path changed to professional broadcaster. As operator of the independent Radio Haiti Inter from 1960 until his death, Dominique became a hero to the masses and a frequent enemy of the government. In extensive interview segments, Dominique exudes the charismatic good humor and mischievous zeal that brought him fame and infamy from the various constituents of Haiti's notorious political landscape. An impish, animated figure with sparkling eyes and naughty grin, Dominique gleefully or angrily recounts confrontations with the authority of Haiti's Duvalier father-and-son dictators, and later the Aristide regime. The Agronomist is very much a homemade affair, but by no means amateurish. Using mostly raw camcorder video, Demme makes a stylish statement with his visuals and Dominique's words. He also gets plenty of help from a sensational soundtrack by another beloved Haitian hero, Wyclef Jean. The Agronomist is an apt history lesson about Haiti's legacy of political turmoil and a powerful testimonial about patriotism in the face of oppression. --Ted Fry
Description
The life of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist, Jean Dominique, told through historical footage of Haiti; interviews with Dominique and his wife, Michele Montas; and footage shot before his assassination in April 2000.
Average customer rating:
- powerful and compelling......
- Good Info.
- controversial
- A Moving and very Eye-Opening Film
- Political Passion + Remarkable Bravery
|
The Agronomist
Starring: Jean Dominique , Ronald Reagan , and Aboudja
Director: Jonathan Demme
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
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Similar Items:
- Aristide and the Endless Revolution
- Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101
- Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup (Read and Resist)
- Life And Debt
- Lumumba (Special Edition)
ASIN: B0007XBLK8
Release Date: 2005-06-07 |
Amazon.com
Jonathan Demme has always had a thing for Haiti. With The Agronomist, the Oscar winning director of The Silence of the Lambs takes his Haitian passion for a serious and considerably more personal turn in a documentary profiling journalist and radio pioneer Jean Dominique. Demme first became intrigued by Dominique in 1991 when he undertook a series of informal video interviews. He returned to his subject many times over the next decade, sometimes in Haiti and sometimes during extended periods when Dominique was in the U.S., a political exile from his homeland. When Demme began his documentary, he certainly couldn't have planned for its end--the assassination of Dominique outside his Port au Prince radio station in 2000. As The Agronomist makes clear, it was a blatantly political crime and one that remains unsolved. The title refers to Dominique's original vocation helping farmers in the rural communities of Haiti. He came from the upper classes, but continued his battles in representing his country's poor and dispossessed even as his career path changed to professional broadcaster. As operator of the independent Radio Haiti Inter from 1960 until his death, Dominique became a hero to the masses and a frequent enemy of the government. In extensive interview segments, Dominique exudes the charismatic good humor and mischievous zeal that brought him fame and infamy from the various constituents of Haiti's notorious political landscape. An impish, animated figure with sparkling eyes and naughty grin, Dominique gleefully or angrily recounts confrontations with the authority of Haiti's Duvalier father-and-son dictators, and later the Aristide regime. The Agronomist is very much a homemade affair, but by no means amateurish. Using mostly raw camcorder video, Demme makes a stylish statement with his visuals and Dominique's words. He also gets plenty of help from a sensational soundtrack by another beloved Haitian hero, Wyclef Jean. The Agronomist is an apt history lesson about Haiti's legacy of political turmoil and a powerful testimonial about patriotism in the face of oppression. --Ted Fry
Description
The life of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist, Jean Dominique, told through historical footage of Haiti; interviews with Dominique and his wife, Michele Montas; and footage shot before his assassination in April 2000.
Customer Reviews:
powerful and compelling.............2007-05-25
Though, I know of filmmaker Jonathan Demme (known best for THE CRYING GAME, among other films), I have never seen any of the films from his extensive body of work. What's more, I knew even less of Haiti. It was time that I receive an education, I felt, and what better way to do this than through viewing an intense and engrossing film like THE AGRONOMIST, one of the most beautifully crafted documentaries I have seen in a very long time.
The film's title is in reference to Hatian radio journalist Jean Dominique (1930-2000), a great, charismatic and controversial part of Haitian mass media and history for the forty years he was on the air, with RADIO HAITI, his radio station, founded in 1960. For those of you unfamiliar with agronomy, it is a type of agricultural science. Receiving an education as an agronomist as a young man, from a very affluent mulatto family in Haiti, Dominique applied his acquired knowledge of the science of sustainable cultivation to help poor Haitian peasants, with their cash crop. He also felt a calling to start up a film club, produce a Haitian documentary centered on voodoo, and eventually start his work as a very progressive journalist, challenging the corrupt politics of his very violent and turbulent government. Eventually, Dominique was driven into exile, in New York, with his wife.
Jonathan Demme began recording informal interviews with Dominique in 1986, juxtaposing his footage with newsreels documenting political violence in Haiti, as well as interviews with Dominique's wife, other family members and colleagues, leading up to his assasination in April of 2000. His footage is compelling, profound and even (at times) humorous. The very charismatic Jean Dominique was insightful, with a wit that cut like a knife, and interjected his pointed observations with bursts of humor and poetry. What's more, the original musical soundtrack is fabulous. Wyclef Jean and Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis bring great songs to this documentary piece, that add such color and flavor to the story. THE AGRONOMIST is great and I am truly surprised that it didn't get more exposure! I definitely reccomend it.
Good Info........2007-04-10
n a word, this movie is "educational." It isn't the best documentary I've ever seen, but I do know quite a bit more about Haiti than I did before I saw it.
controversial.......2007-03-10
This film is an excellent documentary about Dominique and Haitian politics in general. It brings to life the Duvaliers' regime and the Aristide administration through the eyes of the most controversial journalist and his life at radio haiti.
A Moving and very Eye-Opening Film.......2007-02-26
I enjoyed watching this documentary because it really showed what could be... the elite of Haiti rising up and standing for the rights of ALL Haitians not standing for impunity in the justice system and governmental abuses. Jean Dominque dared to simply stand for HAITI...against corruption on all sides and he paid with his life like so many other Haitian activists. It is a shame to see so many rich and powerful ignoring the plight of the poor in their own country. This documentary shows the story of someone who dared to be different. His impact is living beyond his life thanks to this film and others who carry on his story.
I have been to Haiti twice and am planning my third trip. Your heart is so full to the breaking point when you visit - so many wonderful people full of life and looking for hope. Haiti is so often pushed to the sidelines but hopefully with films such as these more people will be inspired to help in the fight for justice for Haiti.
Political Passion + Remarkable Bravery.......2007-01-24
"The truth," recalls Jean Dominique (1930-2000) quoting Shakespeare, "will always make the devil's face blush." For forty years Dominique was Haiti's most eloquent and outspoken political and human rights activist. Whether it was Papa Doc Duvalier, his son Baby Doc, Raoul Cedras, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Preval, the provisional puppet governments supported by America and run by the military, or the hated Macoutes thug-militia, Dominique spoke unvarnished truth and justice to power. He gave voice to the poorest of the poor in general and peasants in particular. When he was assassinated April 3, 2000 at the age of 70, he requested that his wife and the peasants together pour his ashes into the river. By training Dominique was an agronomist, but he became a national hero by force of his unflinching bravery, charming eloquence, and political passion. Late in the documentary he describes himself as always having had "an unquenchable faith as a militant for true change." With his journalist wife Michele Montas, he owned and operated Haiti's oldest and only free radio station, Radio Haiti, despite repeated episodes of harassment, torture, jail, and over six years of exile in Manhattan. Broadcasts were in native Creole rather than colonial French, connecting Dominique viscerally to the millions of powerless peasants. In addition, he produced Haiti's first film in Haiti by a Haitian, sensing that when you watch closely, you understand how a film becomes a political act. In 1965, Papa Doc's authorities permanently closed Haiti's first film club that he had started. Written and directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs), who interviewed Dominique over a period of ten years, this documentary demonstrates how some times human history is driven from "the bottom up" rather than the "top down." In English and Creole (with English subtitles).
![The Agronomist [Region 2]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21JXM396YRL.jpg)
Average customer rating:
- powerful and compelling......
- Good Info.
- controversial
- A Moving and very Eye-Opening Film
- Political Passion + Remarkable Bravery
|
The Agronomist [Region 2]
Starring: Jean Dominique , Aboudja , and Ronald Reagan
Director: Jonathan Demme
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Similar Items:
- Aristide and the Endless Revolution
- Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101
- Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup (Read and Resist)
- Life And Debt
- Lumumba (Special Edition)
ASIN: B00022VMLC |
Amazon.com
Jonathan Demme has always had a thing for Haiti. With The Agronomist, the Oscar winning director of The Silence of the Lambs takes his Haitian passion for a serious and considerably more personal turn in a documentary profiling journalist and radio pioneer Jean Dominique. Demme first became intrigued by Dominique in 1991 when he undertook a series of informal video interviews. He returned to his subject many times over the next decade, sometimes in Haiti and sometimes during extended periods when Dominique was in the U.S., a political exile from his homeland. When Demme began his documentary, he certainly couldn't have planned for its end--the assassination of Dominique outside his Port au Prince radio station in 2000. As The Agronomist makes clear, it was a blatantly political crime and one that remains unsolved. The title refers to Dominique's original vocation helping farmers in the rural communities of Haiti. He came from the upper classes, but continued his battles in representing his country's poor and dispossessed even as his career path changed to professional broadcaster. As operator of the independent Radio Haiti Inter from 1960 until his death, Dominique became a hero to the masses and a frequent enemy of the government. In extensive interview segments, Dominique exudes the charismatic good humor and mischievous zeal that brought him fame and infamy from the various constituents of Haiti's notorious political landscape. An impish, animated figure with sparkling eyes and naughty grin, Dominique gleefully or angrily recounts confrontations with the authority of Haiti's Duvalier father-and-son dictators, and later the Aristide regime. The Agronomist is very much a homemade affair, but by no means amateurish. Using mostly raw camcorder video, Demme makes a stylish statement with his visuals and Dominique's words. He also gets plenty of help from a sensational soundtrack by another beloved Haitian hero, Wyclef Jean. The Agronomist is an apt history lesson about Haiti's legacy of political turmoil and a powerful testimonial about patriotism in the face of oppression. --Ted Fry
Customer Reviews:
powerful and compelling.............2007-05-25
Though, I know of filmmaker Jonathan Demme (known best for THE CRYING GAME, among other films), I have never seen any of the films from his extensive body of work. What's more, I knew even less of Haiti. It was time that I receive an education, I felt, and what better way to do this than through viewing an intense and engrossing film like THE AGRONOMIST, one of the most beautifully crafted documentaries I have seen in a very long time.
The film's title is in reference to Hatian radio journalist Jean Dominique (1930-2000), a great, charismatic and controversial part of Haitian mass media and history for the forty years he was on the air, with RADIO HAITI, his radio station, founded in 1960. For those of you unfamiliar with agronomy, it is a type of agricultural science. Receiving an education as an agronomist as a young man, from a very affluent mulatto family in Haiti, Dominique applied his acquired knowledge of the science of sustainable cultivation to help poor Haitian peasants, with their cash crop. He also felt a calling to start up a film club, produce a Haitian documentary centered on voodoo, and eventually start his work as a very progressive journalist, challenging the corrupt politics of his very violent and turbulent government. Eventually, Dominique was driven into exile, in New York, with his wife.
Jonathan Demme began recording informal interviews with Dominique in 1986, juxtaposing his footage with newsreels documenting political violence in Haiti, as well as interviews with Dominique's wife, other family members and colleagues, leading up to his assasination in April of 2000. His footage is compelling, profound and even (at times) humorous. The very charismatic Jean Dominique was insightful, with a wit that cut like a knife, and interjected his pointed observations with bursts of humor and poetry. What's more, the original musical soundtrack is fabulous. Wyclef Jean and Jerry "Wonder" Duplessis bring great songs to this documentary piece, that add such color and flavor to the story. THE AGRONOMIST is great and I am truly surprised that it didn't get more exposure! I definitely reccomend it.
Good Info........2007-04-10
n a word, this movie is "educational." It isn't the best documentary I've ever seen, but I do know quite a bit more about Haiti than I did before I saw it.
controversial.......2007-03-10
This film is an excellent documentary about Dominique and Haitian politics in general. It brings to life the Duvaliers' regime and the Aristide administration through the eyes of the most controversial journalist and his life at radio haiti.
A Moving and very Eye-Opening Film.......2007-02-26
I enjoyed watching this documentary because it really showed what could be... the elite of Haiti rising up and standing for the rights of ALL Haitians not standing for impunity in the justice system and governmental abuses. Jean Dominque dared to simply stand for HAITI...against corruption on all sides and he paid with his life like so many other Haitian activists. It is a shame to see so many rich and powerful ignoring the plight of the poor in their own country. This documentary shows the story of someone who dared to be different. His impact is living beyond his life thanks to this film and others who carry on his story.
I have been to Haiti twice and am planning my third trip. Your heart is so full to the breaking point when you visit - so many wonderful people full of life and looking for hope. Haiti is so often pushed to the sidelines but hopefully with films such as these more people will be inspired to help in the fight for justice for Haiti.
Political Passion + Remarkable Bravery.......2007-01-24
"The truth," recalls Jean Dominique (1930-2000) quoting Shakespeare, "will always make the devil's face blush." For forty years Dominique was Haiti's most eloquent and outspoken political and human rights activist. Whether it was Papa Doc Duvalier, his son Baby Doc, Raoul Cedras, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Preval, the provisional puppet governments supported by America and run by the military, or the hated Macoutes thug-militia, Dominique spoke unvarnished truth and justice to power. He gave voice to the poorest of the poor in general and peasants in particular. When he was assassinated April 3, 2000 at the age of 70, he requested that his wife and the peasants together pour his ashes into the river. By training Dominique was an agronomist, but he became a national hero by force of his unflinching bravery, charming eloquence, and political passion. Late in the documentary he describes himself as always having had "an unquenchable faith as a militant for true change." With his journalist wife Michele Montas, he owned and operated Haiti's oldest and only free radio station, Radio Haiti, despite repeated episodes of harassment, torture, jail, and over six years of exile in Manhattan. Broadcasts were in native Creole rather than colonial French, connecting Dominique viscerally to the millions of powerless peasants. In addition, he produced Haiti's first film in Haiti by a Haitian, sensing that when you watch closely, you understand how a film becomes a political act. In 1965, Papa Doc's authorities permanently closed Haiti's first film club that he had started. Written and directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs), who interviewed Dominique over a period of ten years, this documentary demonstrates how some times human history is driven from "the bottom up" rather than the "top down." In English and Creole (with English subtitles).
Average customer rating:
|
Charlie Rose with John Rockefeller; Hisham Melhem; Jonathan Demme (May 5, 2004)
Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
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ASIN: B000HBL18W
Release Date: 2006-08-15 |
Description
The first half of the broadcast is dedicated to the controversy over the pictures taken at Abu Ghraib. Charlie talks first to Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia and then Hisham Melhem, journalist for As Safir in Lebanon, about the Arab reaction. The evening closes with a discussion about a new film called The Agronomist, with its director Jonathan Demme, and the subject of the film, Haitian journalist Jean Dominique's widow, Michele Montas.
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