The Cine Institute in Jacmel, Haiti offers students a free filmmaking course
Course designed to help students set up businesses after graduation and give their country more of a voice
Films can make a difference. At the Ciné Institute in Jacmel, Haiti, students who meet the entrance requirements can attend a full-time, two-year filmmaking course for free.
The idea behind this philanthropic approach is that the graduates will go on to use their new skills to set up businesses on Haiti and build a sustainable audiovisual industry. It’s a way of generating employment in the country, which is still recovering from the devastating earthquake of 2010.
“Our goal is to build and support a local film industry in Haiti,” says Kathryn Everett, chief operating office of Artists for Peace and Justice, the New York-based organisation which represents the Institute abroad.
“We work hard to get the films we make shown inside the country, and to help out students get jobs when they’ve finished their studies. We’re trying to develop the students’ talents and train them to do business.”
The Institute, which grew out of the Jacmel Film Festival, opened in 2009. The earthquake struck a year later. “The school had about 30 students when the earthquake hit,” Everett explains. “We were, of course, directly affected. We were very worried about one of our students, who went missing for two weeks.”
