Haiti generated the first slave uprising and the first Black republic in 1804. This was followed by decades of occupation, foreign interference, and the cruelties of the Duvalier regime. It continues to be battered by disasters of both nature and predatory neoliberal economics, and as DOXA 2023 begins, Haiti is once again in our newsfeeds with horrific tales of gang violence and vigilante revenge in Port-au-Prince. To that end, now is the time to catch Kite Zo A, an incantatory appreciation of Vodou culture completely at odds with the developed world’s apprehension of the third largest country in the Caribbean. It’s a sensuous film made of impressions over hard information, featuring poets, dancers, singers, priests, and even a posse of rollerblading daredevils, but its message of spiritual resistance—of a kind that’s perhaps incomprehensible to us coldly technocratic northerners—is unambiguous. Kaveh Nabatian’s camera glides like an airborne spirit from cities to outlandish rural rock formations, offering a riot of colour, sound, and good vibes. Given that we mostly see Haiti through Western news media and dreadful films like 2020’s Citizen Penn, it’s a thoroughly cleansing experience.

Stir, May 2023