Father Rick, Michael Stahl David, Jimmy Jean Louis, Connection

I've mentioned Father Rick on a few posts before. Since he was mentioned so heavily in the first post of this blog, I felt it might be prudent to touch on some of the other experiences before I got back to him. He is quite incredible. But first a bit about the film.

Nou Sove and the companion documentary Sove Nou are about discovery. What has happened in Haiti? What is happening? What does the future hold? Without understanding the past, how can we find the future? The films were not done to give the answers, to present a solution. There is too much there to even try to approach. What they are trying to relay is a broader discussion, to seek understanding.

Michael Stahl David is an extremely talented actor. For my company KijiK, we put Cloverfield as one of our top ten movies of 2008, not because Michael was one of the stars, but because it posed questions, made us think. What if? What drives people to react in dire circumstances?

What I think makes Michael such a great actor is the quest for understanding. I feel he reaches his character through that exploration, the motivation of the character. I felt I connected with Michael in part because of his quest for understanding while we were in Haiti. He explored more than many I've seen in my travels. There were times when the group was moving to the next stop and Michael would be across the street, or in an artists studio, or so engaged in conversation with someone (even though there was a language barrier), we would be gone for a long period without realizing he wasn't with us. I feel he was totally engaged with Haiti and that the people he connected with were engaged with him, drawn to him.

Jimmy is the main focus of Nou Sove in part because I feel he is Haiti. He is connected like no other to the country. His connection is evident in every character he plays, but also I feel in his life. He lives every moment for the moment.


And that brings me to Father Rick. Connection. He started an orphanage 20 years ago. He now presides over the largest pediatric hospital in Haiti and all of the Caribbean, the largest orphanage, the only clean water available to thousands of people and a school system that reaches into the poorest and most crime ridden areas in the country.



I was blown away by his ease from place to place. At the hospital he directed the opening of a new branch while we were there and the daily operations of the facility.






The next day he was giving away tons of food at a drop off point in Cite Soliel. He guided us through Wharf City and the slums in Cite Soliel, where only a few years ago the police and military would not go for even an hour. And they love him. All reaching out to him as we walked, not as a deity, but as a fellow man, human. And the schools in the middle of Wharf City. Incredible.



Connection. We are all born into a set of circumstances, some more favorable than others (at least on the surface). But who knows what circumstance one could have been born under. And in this time of crisis, where people are losing so much it's more relevant than ever. Walk a mile in another's shoes. Maybe connecting isn't so far fetched. Haiti is only two hours away.

Nou Sove

"Nou Sove" is the 2nd in our "Sove Nou" trilogy. The first part is our documentary "Sove Nou" narrated by Danny Glover

www.kijikmultimedia.com/sovenou

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world. The country is as poor as any Sub-Saharan country in Africa or similar underdeveloped region in Western Europe. The Sove Nou trilogy was initiated to address many of the issues that have brought Haiti to where it is now, some of what is being done and what can be done to help bring stability to the region. The third in the trilogy is our feature film called "Tears for Revolution" which is currently under development. This blog and companion website will chronicle the development of Nou Sove while we're in Haiti December 2nd- 7th with logs, video and photographs. Our Haiti trip has become a bit bigger than we anticipated, as a movement has been started called Hollywood for Haiti which will take place while we're in Haiti. Below is information on that. This is not to be confused with the non profit "Hollywood Unites for Haiti" started by "Heroes" actor Jimmy Jean Louis, which KijiK will be partnering with for many projects:

HOLLYWOOD IN HAITI TO HELP CHILDREN IN NEED

Paul & Deborah Haggis, James Franco, Madeline Stowe, Josh Brolin & Diane Lane, Maria Bello & Bryn Mooser, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Michael Stahl David and others, in Haiti with N.P.H. – Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (Our Little Brothers and Sisters) for the inauguration of the first Rehabilitation Centre for disabled children in the country, and the launch of “Francisville – New Work City.”

Two-time Academy Award winner Paul Haggis went to the slums of Haiti last February to meet Father Richard Frechette, priest and doctor, who has been working with the children of Port Au Prince for over twenty years.

Haiti is one of the two poorest countries in the world. “Father Rick,” as he is known to the people of its massive slums, is the Head of N.P.H. – Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (Our Little Brothers and Sisters, Nos Petit Freres and Soeurs), a humanitarian organization founded in 1954.

In Haiti today, two hundred and fifty children die every week, most from easily preventable diseases. One child out of three dies before reaching the age of five. Of those who survive, one child out of two does not go to school. Seventy percent of its people are unemployed.

While in Haiti, Haggis visited several N.P.H. projects, including the orphanage that Father Rick founded twenty years ago, home to six hundred abandoned children, and the beautiful new pediatric hospital he built -- the largest in the Caribbean. He also spent time at Father Rick’s street schools in the slums, which provide an education and a hot meal a day to over 3.000 children, and NPH’s water distribution centre, which provides the only clean water available to thousands of people. Father Rick also built the only free mortuary and cemetery. As terrible as it sounds, until he did so, most poor parents were unable to bury their dead children, and their bodies were simply left on a hill, and as a result suffered terrible indignities.

Paul was also there to witness the beginning of construction of NPH’s rehabilitation centre for disabled children.

This December 3^rd, a date internationally celebrated as World Day for Disability, Paul and a group of friends will return to Haiti for the inauguration of “Kay Saint Germaine – House of Little Angels,” the first rehab centre in the country for disabled children. The life of these children is especially difficult in Haiti. According to voodoo worship, the disabled are considered cursed. They are therefore shunned, often abandoned, or worse.

Those visiting on this occasion are doing so to support N.P.H. and Father Rick in spreading information and awareness about the plight of the handicapped children in Haiti. They will also attend the kick-off of a new project, Francisville, a site where small factories and a professional school will be built to produce basic goods such as bread, soap and shoes in order to provide training and jobs for the poor, as well as to create resources to at least partially sustain N.P.H. humanitarian projects in the country.

Joining the group of Americans will be a delegation of Italian donors and volunteers from Fondazione Francesca Rava – N.P.H. Italia, the organization that lead to the realization of Kay Saint Germaine and is now promoting Francisville.