The Agronomist (Jonathan Demme; US/Haiti, 2003)

Unfettered, responsive, and populist radio was Jean Léopold Dominique’s aspiration. In 1969, Radio Haiti began occupying Port-au-Prince’s airwaves, becoming the first independent broadcasts in this nation’s history. Dominique daringly aired unadulterated stories about the struggles for democracy in a style that was adored by the poor and powerless and in a language they understood, Haitian Creole. The use of patois itself was unquestioningly courageous, for it immediately set the station apart from a regime that favored French along with absolute power. This was ten years into "Papa Doc" Duvalier’s dictatorial reign, with “Baby Doc” just two years away. Jonathan Demme’s bristling The Agronomist profiles this Haiti-born broadcaster who was originally trained in France as an agronomist and returned to Haiti to teach the peasantry how to be self-sufficient. When his activist agrarian efforts were rewarded with a jail sentence, Dominique changed course, becoming first a reporter then an on-air broadcaster. Miraculously, Radio Haiti survived for thirty years and the reign of three dictators, but at great cost to its founder, who was exiled several times and eventually murdered. Demme takes great advantage of Dominique’s flamboyant personality, using his story to tell the turbulent history of Haiti itself. Lavishly illustrated with archival footage, The Agronomist is about a man who wouldn’t keep his mouth shut.

• Photographed by Demme, Aboudja, Bevin McNamara, Peter Saraf.
(90 mins, In French, Creole, English with English subtitles, Color/B&W, 35mm, From Wesleyan University Film Archive, permission Jonathan Demme)