Crédits

Back to productions
  • Directed byAlain d'Aix
  • Written byAlain d'Aix, Anthony Phelps
  • Original IdeaH?l?ne Valiquette
  • CollaborationToto Bissainthe, Jean-Claude B?rger, Paul Tana
  • ImagePhilippe Lavalette, Jocelyn Simard, Claude Brasseur
  • Sound RecordingMarcel Fraser, Serge Beauchemin
  • PhotographyClermont Lapointe, Marcel Breton
  • Edited byFran?ois Gervais
  • MusicVincent Dionne
  • AnimationMIRALab (HEC, Universit? de Montr?al)
  • Animation - Directed byNadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Daniel Thalmann
  • Animation - AnimatorDominique Boisvert, Lucie Marchand
  • Animation - Film SetLucie Marchand
  • Animation - Software SupportDominique Boisvert, Ming Hong Tong
  • MusiciansLe groupe Foula (Oswald Durand, Gaston Jean-Baptiste, Wilfrid Lavaud)
  • Narrated byPauline Julien
  • Sound MixAndr?-Gilles Gagn?
  • Produced byNathalie Barton

Produced by

InformAction

Produced with the financial help of

Telefilm Canada

Soci?t? g?n?rale des industries culturelles - Qu?bec

and the collaboration of

Soci?t? Radio-Canada

About the film

Back to productions

Anthony Phelps

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he completed a humanities program at the Collège Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague (1947), studied chemistry at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA (1950–3), and ceramics at Montreal's École des Beaux-Arts (1953). Returning to Haiti, he became director of cultural programming at Radio-Cacique, where he produced a weekly program of poetry and theatre. In the early 1960s Phelps founded the journal Semences, directed Prisme, a theatre troupe, and was heavily involved with the group of poets known as Haïti littéraire. During this period he published three volumes of poetry: Été (1960), Présence (1961), and Éclats de silence (1962). In 1964 he immigrated to Quebec, first working as a cameraman with Productions Ville-Marie and acting at Le Théâtre de l'Estoc (Quebec City), before joining Radio-Canada in Montreal, where he has worked as a news journalist since 1966.

Phelps' interest in various literary genres soon became evident. Two volumes of short stories were published in Paris and Montreal respectively: Mon pays que voici, suivi de Les dits du feu-aux-cailloux (1968) and Et moi je suis une île (1973). A first play, Le conditionnel, was produced at Hull's L'Escale (1970) and Toronto's Théâtre du P'tit Bonheur (1977). His first novel, Moins l'infini. Roman haïtien (1973)—which has been translated into Spanish, Russian, and German—is the first of several works that reflect his ongoing concern with conditions in the land of his birth. His second, Mémoire en colin-maillard (1976), in which the narrator-protagonist seeks to identify the person who betrayed two children to the political police of a country strongly resembling Haiti, illustrates the author's mastery of language and his penchant for poetic prose. The same year he also edited a volume of essays, Trente ans de pouvoir noir en Haïti, and in 1985 published another novel, Haïti! Haïti!

Best known for his poetry—which has been translated into English, Spanish, and Russian—Phelps has published poetic texts in many journals, such as Conjonction (Haiti), Marginales (Belgium), and Présence africaine (France).

The poetry collection Motifs pour le temps saisonnier (1976) was followed by La bélière Caraïbe (1980), published in Montreal and Havana, in which the poet comes to terms with the complexities of his people, emerging from the trifold mix of Indian, African, and European ancestry into what he calls the Caribbean man. Reflecting the poetic maturity of a poet in exile, La bélière Caraïbe was awarded the Cuban poetry prize, Casa de las Americas. Phelps's most powerful poetry is found in Orchidée nègre (1987), which is divided into two parts: ‘Typographe céleste’ contains a selection of texts written from 1981 to 1983, while ‘Orchidée nègre’ conjures up a litany of sensuous evocations of the erotic beauty of Caraïbe, his Caribbean lover and homeland—confirming Phelps' mature nationalism and his mastery of the poetic art.

Ramon Hathorn

Source: https://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/8501/Anthony-Phelps.html

Toto Bissainthe

Marie Clotilde "Toto " Bissainthe (1934, Cap-Haïtien, Haiti - June 4, 1994, Haiti) was a Haïtian actress and singer known for her innovative blend of traditional Vodou and rural themes and music with contemporary lyricism and arrangements. Born in Cap-Haïtien in 1934, she left Haïti at an early age to pursue her studies abroad. Her career started in theatre with the company Griots, of which she was a founding member in 1956. Griots was at the vanguard of négritude-inspired cultural institutions in France, and was the first African theatre company in Paris.

With a groundbreaking performance in 1973 at La vieille grille in Paris, Toto Bissainthe established herself as singer-songwriter-composer, stunning the audience with her soul-stirring renditions of original compositions that paid homage to the lives, struggles, miseries and spirituality of working class and rural Haïtians.

An artist in exile, Toto Bissainthe will be unable to return to the Haïti that so inspired her until the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. However, the multiple disappointments of the unending democratic transition and political infighting would forever embitter the outspoken artist, who had long dreamed of a return to help rebuild her motherland. Saddened by Haïti's social and political degradation, Toto Bissainthe's health would enter a downward spiral ending with her passing from liver damage on June 4th, 1994.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toto_Bissainthe

Festivals

Back to productions

Grand prix du festival international cr?ole, Seychelles 1989.

Statement of intent

Back to productions

In French only

Il existe depuis plus de vingt ans une grande complicité culturelle entre le Québec et Haîti. Dans le conte "Moi, je suis une île ", le poète Anthony Phelps a voulu raconter une histoire à l'envers. On parle toujours du voyage des boat-people, des boeing-people, qui viennent d'Haïti et s'installent au Québec. Dans le conte et son adaptation cinématographique, Les Îles ont une âme, c'est l'île de Montréal qui a voulu rencontrer sa soeur d'eau salée dans une fantaisie poétique qui évoque la rencontre de deux cultures.

La véritable découverte d'Haïti, pour le visiteur qui souhaite dépasser le farniente sur la plage, c'est que le pays est "habité" par l'Histoire. Et cette histoire est singulière, exemplaire. La richesse culturelle d'Haïti frappe également tous ceux à qui le pays se révèle.

Souvent on ne connaît d'Haïti que les chauffeurs de taxi. Il est important d'en savoir davantage sur une société que l'on voisine souvent (50 000 Haïtiens au Québec) et de valoriser une autre culture souvent présentée sous ses seuls aspects pathétique ou ubuesque (la misére et les Tontons-macoutes). Compréhension indispensable à l'harmonie sociale.

Le surnaturel qui permet le voyage est commandé par les signes magiques du vaudou, le "vévé" que trace le poète dans la neige ou sur le sol, et qui se transforme en l'île de Montréal.

Les épisodes d'animation par ordinateur marquent les moments pendant lesquels le fantastique vaudou opère.

La création électronique qui transforme des chiffres électroniques en images bien visibles est bien un autre merveilleux.

Alain d'Aix

Short summary

Back to productions

In French only

Par un soir glacé d'hiver, le poète Anthony Phelps fait ses adieux à l'île de Montréal avant de rentrer dans son pays, Haïti. Les îles ont une âme et rêvent de voyage... Alors le poète propose à Montréal de l'accompagner.

Voyage magique, grâce au dieu de la mer Agoué : Montréal va découvrir la richesse culturelle d'Haïti  et combien le pays est "habité" par l'Histoire.

" Les Îles ont une âme ", avec la chanteuse et comédienne TOTO BISSAINTHE et des extraits de "Mon pays que voici" d'Anthony Phelps, un film sur la fierté et le chagrin d'Haïti.