1964: Simityè Kamoken
After being elected to power in 1957, François Duvalier declared himself Haiti’s President for life in 1964, inaugurating one of the most bloodthirsty dictatorships of the 20th century – maintained through violent repression and brutal obscurantism. Filmmaker Rachelle Magloire’s family of revolutionary democrats resisted the regime through clandestine action. After an execution and arrests among her relatives, they spent years in exile in Canada. Returning in 1986, she witnessed the failure to bring the dictatorship to justice. ‘1964, Simityè Kamoken’ revisits the savage crackdown on a guerrilla movement in Haiti’s southeast. Drawing on eyewitness testimony, military archives, and declassified CIA files, the film connects national trauma to personal history, and honours the thousands who died fighting for freedom.