Filmmaker Spotlight: Alexandria Hammond

Interview with Alexandria Hammond

By Caroline Jackson

This documentary spans a period of several years. Did you begin with the same vision you ended with? How did your idea of its focus change as you were making the film?

Visually, it is how I envisioned the film. As far as content, I knew I would be following children, getting their perspective, seeing Haiti through their eyes. I knew I wanted to make something very visual and cinematic. These beautiful landscapes and locations I wanted to shoot all came through in the end, but where the story went, I had not anticipated. I originally thought I would be able to do this in one trip, but as i came back to the States and started looking through the footage, I realized there was definitely more to do, so I went back. One tough thing about filming these street kids is that some of them are transient and you never find them again, but when we found Denick in the beginning, we knew we could keep coming back to him. Then, we thought it would end with him when he got into school, but that's when the earthquake happened. I remember finishing what I thought was a final cut in December of 2009 then the earthquake hit in January. It didn't physically affect Cap Haitien as much, but it affected the culture and structure of the whole country.

I noticed that you incorporated the earthquake a little bit, but retained the focus on your original idea about the kids. How much did it affect the film?

It was an interesting turn of events because I had been going to Haiti since 2001, and felt very connected to the country for years, but after the earthquake, all of a sudden people were very interested in the subject. I was fortunate that PBS became interested, but they said I needed to go back and capture a bit about how the earthquake affected the kids. So we went back one more time and got some footage showing how the poverty and loss from the earthquake made things even harder for someone living in the streets. I never imagined Haiti would take over 4 years of my life, but we wanted to make sure we completed the story as best we could.

How did you first come in contact with the children featured in the film? How long it did them to adjust to your presence?

The first trip to Cap Haitien, I was fortunate to have a very helpful guide who is somewhat of a celebrity in Haiti but also has one foot on the street. People knew him, the kids knew him, and that made it a lot easier to get started. We didn't begin shooting until we spent a week scouting around, just meeting and talking to people. We were clear about our purpose, that we just wanted to share their stories, and quite a few kids really opened up to us. The sad part is that we couldn't put all of the kids that we met in the film, but meeting Denick was very lucky; when he started giving this speech [featured at the beginning], a crowd formed around us, all captivated by this young boy. Then there was Nickenson, one of the first people we met, and he was more of the typical street kid who didn't really have a family at all and had been on the street since he was 8 years old.

Have any of them seen the film? What did they think?

Both Denick and Nickenson have seen it, and they really reacted well. I think it was a little surreal, but they knew what the mission was. They understood that they would be representing the stories and perspectives of a lot of kids and that because of this they were doing something wonderful.

The mayor acted pretty cynical and it seems like there are a lot of misconceptions about these children. Is this an accurate portrayal of how different economic classes in Haiti interact?

This is a major issue, and I wanted to capture this small class of bourgeois to show how extreme the situation is between the rich and the poor -- just a few families are incredibly rich and the rest are extremely poor. Then there is a middle class who aren't wealthy, but who may send their kids to private school and take pride in how the dress, etc., and many of these people really look down on the street children, calling them "soulless." The police also see them that way, and while of course there are some who steal food, it doesn't excuse the huge class division. And there is absolutely nothing being done for the children. The mayor keeps saying they're going to do things, but nothing actually happens.

What is the biggest obstacle in making change? What is one significant step necessary in getting these kids off the streets?

This issue is so complicated, and one thing I definitely learned is that there's not an easy solution. In trying to understand all the problems involved, it's incredibly important for the government to support their citizens. Street kids exist because families can't support their families or the parents die and there's nowhere for them to go. It has to start with health care, community empowerment, and with the government reaching out to the Haitian people so they know there is work and there is support. We have to start there, and then we can help the kids. For so long, people viewed street kids so badly, but the perception is changing since the earthquake; after this disaster, everyone was out on the street, so the average person could identify with these kids. However, change has to happen from within Haiti. Education is important, but schools are not always the answer. In the film, you see Nickenson and Antoine not really ready for that kind of structured lifestyle, plus many of them have learning disabilities from years of sniffing paint thinner. It would be great if there was some opportunity for them to learn a trade or get work experience.

There was a great shot of a local fishing boat going by a huge cruise liner. How does tourism play into the economy? Do you think there's potential to increase jobs for the local through tourism?

Things have changed so much since the earthquake. For a long time, that cruise would land on that beach and the tourists didn't even know they were in Haiti. Now there is more interest and non-profit involvement, so you're starting to see a bit more tourism. It would definitely help create jobs and build the economy, by still most of the foreigners here are volunteers and missionaries.

How is the UN presence accepted? Do you see positive change from foreign aid?

The UN and much of the foreign government presence came here with the mission of peacekeeping. The originally came in the enforce peace, stabilize the elections, to help put a President in place, and a lot of the more internal matters they couldn't really do anything about. They've seen young people like this all over the world, it's a universal epidemic in countries with this lack of organization and infastructure. The UN did what they could by setting up things like water stations in the city and also supported a school for street kids, but most of the humanitarian work is done by NGOs. UNICEF is very involved in Port Au Prince and not as present in Cap Hatien, but their head of child protection services was really supportive and got more involved at the end.

What's next for the film?

We were very happy that PBS was able to show it, which means a million viewers saw it. There have been a lot of screenings and fundraisers, and I want it to be an educational tool to tell people about this universal story. As more people see this film, we are always donating back to Haiti. We give a lot to Soil which is an NGO where Denick is now working and learning about agricultural, composting, etc. There's also a new school just getting started that we hope to work with once we see how it is functioning. We really just want to raise awareness and to say, not "Look how sad this is.." but rather "Look at how resilient these kids are," and to just help people learn more Haiti and what's going on there.

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