IN PERSON

RSVP

Join us for a screening of award-winning feature documentary, Haiti is a Nation of Artists. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Jacquil Constant, filmmaker and executive director of the Haiti International Film Festival, and Katherine Smith, co-curator of the exhibition Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance. 

The film tells the story of Haitian artists creating transformational art after the devastating earthquake that struck their island country on January 12, 2010. Haitian-American filmmaker Jacquil Constant focuses on the humanity of Haitians, and uplifts their cultural diversity and historical legacy.

Jacquil Constant, a Haitian American independent filmmaker, founded the Haiti International Film Festival, which debuted in Los Angeles in 2015. His company, Constant Production, has overseen music videos, short films, and commercial projects. Constant earned a bachelor’s degree in film production, and a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies, with an emphasis on Pan-African studies and cinema & television arts, from California State University Northridge (CSUN). 

Katherine Smith received her PhD in culture and performance studies from the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. She has held fellowships at Brown University in the departments of Africana studies and the history of art and architecture; and at New York University in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Smith is presently a curatorial and research associate of Haitian arts at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, a lecturer in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/ Dance, and a visiting researcher at the UCLA International Institute. She has played a curatorial role in exhibitions of Haitian art at Brown University and UCLA. Smith publishes regularly in academic journals, edited volumes, and art catalogues on Haitian and Caribbean art and religion. She is currently revising her manuscript on death and religious transformation in urban Haiti. Smith’s latest research focuses on Freemasonry in the Black Atlantic.

Related exhibition: Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance

Fowler Films: Discover the wider world through the power of cinema. From documentaries to art films, our curated series is designed to illuminate the diversity as well as the common threads of lived experiences of people in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, and their diasporas.

Parking available in UCLA Lot 4, 198 Westwood Plaza, directly off Sunset Blvd; $3/hr or max $15/day. Rideshare drop-off at 305 Royce Dr.

 Image courtesy of Jacquil Constant