Poto Mitan: Haitian Women Pillars of the Global Economy will be screened as part of the African Diaspora Film Festival this week. It will be screened on Tuesday, December 1, at 6:00pm at the Cowin Center (Teachers College, Columbia University at 525 West 120th Street) and on Friday, December 4, at 3:00pm at the Riverside Theatre (91 Claremont Avenue at 120th Street). It will be shown with Chercher la vie [Looking for Life].
Claudette Coulanges’ Chercher la vie (Haiti/Germany, 1999) introduces the viewer to two women, Anne-Rose and Rosemene, who each one has their own particular way of battling through life. The former makes lunches in a factory yard in Port-au-Prince and sells her meals to the factory workers; the latter is employed in the same factory as a production worker making pullovers and T-shirts. It is a documentary about labor and gender relations.
Poto Mitan (US/Haiti, 2009), directed by Renée Bergan and Mark Schuller, is the portrait of five women 10 years after Chercher la vie was made. The impact of globalization, labor relations and gender relations remain the topics explored in this film.
For full schedule, see http://www.nyadff.org/films.html
