UNiFEED Story: HAITI / VOODOO FESTIVAL (2.34), Several thousands pilgrims travel to Pleine du Nord,Haiti for the annual festival of Saint Jacques. These include faithful Catholics, practitioners of Voodoo, as well as tourists. For many, it is also a business opportunity, selling amulets and other trinkets as well as providing food and lodging, but some say that the Haitian state could do more in order to reap a greater benefit from the festivities.

25 August 2008

HAITI / VOODOO FESTIVAL (2.34)

Several thousands pilgrims travel to Pleine du Nord,Haiti for the annual festival of Saint Jacques. These include faithful Catholics, practitioners of Voodoo, as well as tourists. For many, it is also a business opportunity, selling amulets and other trinkets as well as providing food and lodging, but some say that the Haitian state could do more in order to reap a greater benefit from the festivities.

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STORY: HAITI/ VOUDOU FESTIVAL
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
TRT: 2.34
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE 22 AUGUST 2008, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

SHOTLIST:

1.Close up, crosses on the stand, street in the background
2.Wide shot, street with church in the back
3.Med shot, women praying
4.Med shot, women praying at the pew
5.Close up, icon of St. Jacque
6.Close up, goods for sale
7.Med shot, woman selling t-shirt with the picture of St. Jacque
8.SOUNDBITE (Creole) Gustave Emmanuel, Mayor of Pleine du Nord:
"There is a lack of attractions; there are almost no hotels or restaurants. Traditionally people sleep in the street and there are no toilets." 
9.Close up, men passing by carrying instruments 
10.Med shot, group of women dressed in white (voodoo) dancing/ singing outside
11.Tilt up shot, cow ready for sacrifice, to a voodoo priest singing
12.Close up, voodoo priest singing
13.Med shot, butchering the carcass of the cow
14.Top shot, blood in drainage canal to pond St. Jacque with people in it.
15.Close up, priestess treating a patient in the pond
16.Wide shot, group of people bathing in the pond
17.Tracking shot, Hogan exiting the bank
18.Pan right, Hogan arriving at his temple
19.Close up, Hogan enters the temple
20.Med shot, altar in the temple
21.Close up, bottles and candles on the altar
22.Tilt up, burning stones to mirror
23.SOUNDBITE (Creole) Herve Joseph, Voodoo Priest: 
"There is an internal crisis and Voodoo, as energy, gives concrete and obvious responses for the revitalization of people. Whatever the nature of the problem is, economic, mental - some people are just crazy - to all this kind of problems, it is the voodoo that gives answers to all the problems".
24.Wide shot, people in the sea at the dawn break
25.Med shot, two men washing each other in the sea
26.Med shot, voodoo ceremony, four men singing and entering the water carrying a pot
27.Med shot, 4 men walking through water singing
28.Medium: four men drumming
29.Medium: 2 women in water
30.Wide, backlight: kid enters water while a man exits

STORYLINE:

Several thousands pilgrims came to Pleine du Nord for the annual festival of Saint Jacques. These included faithful catholic and practitioners of voodoo, as well as tourists.

The festival belongs to the famous "Fetes Champetes", which takes place in Haiti between 13 June and 6 September.

For Catholics, it is the place to light a candle and to make an incantation with a chaplet.

For some, it is also a business opportunity, selling amulets and other trinkets as well as providing food and lodging. Some say that the Haitian state could do more in order to reap a greater benefit from the festivities.

Gustave Emmanuel is the mayor of Pleine du Nord.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Gustave Emmanuel, Mayor of Pleine du Nord:
"There is a lack of attractions; there are almost no hotels or restaurants. Traditionally people sleep in the street and there are no toilets."

Because of the recent increases in the cost of living, there were fewer pilgrims this year. However, those who came were from areas far and wide, including members of the Haitian Diaspora in the United States.

Around the Saint Jacques basin, Catholics and Vaudoisants enjoy a sustained relationship with each other. The animal sacrifices are an essential part of the ceremonies in the basin. The pilgrims come here to formulate their wishes and hoping to witness a miracle.

The meat of the sacrificed animals is not allowed to be sold, and instead is given to the pilgrims.

Pilgrims make promises to the Saint or to the Loa, to come back each year and to offer a gift or address a sacrifice. The pilgrims strongly believe in the purification and in the healing powers of a bath in the mud of the Basin St Jacques.

Herve Joseph is 38 years old. He is a Hogan, as they call a Voodoo priest, and visits the "Fete Patronale" of Plaine du Nord.

According to Joseph, Voodoo unites the Haitian people. In his everyday life, he works at a bank in Cape Haitian; when he leaves his office, he goes to his temple, called Bambara, north of Cape Haitian.

He has been working there for 7 years now. During this time, he has seen more and more people who are attracted by voodoo.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Herve Joseph, Voodoo Priest: 
 "There is an internal crisis and Voodoo, as energy, gives concrete and obvious responses for the revitalization of people. Whatever the nature of the problem is, economic, mental - some people are just crazy - to all this kind of problems, it is the voodoo that gives answers to all the problems".

After days of festivities, pilgrims go to the beach of Bord de Mer de Limonade. There they dispose of their uniform of penitence and take a bath in the sea.

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HAITI / VOODOO FESTIVAL (2.34)

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