Arnold Antonin (Celesti Corbanese, born 1942 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian film director. Man of diverse careers, Arnold Antonin is known both inside and outside Haiti for his social, political and cultural commitment. He was honored for lifetime achievement with the Djibril Diop Mambety award at the International Film Cannes Festival in 2002.
He received the Paul Robeson African Diaspora best film award at FESPACO in Ouagadougoux in 2007 and 2009. He also received numerous awards and accolades at festivals for his documentaries and fiction movies. He was president of the Haitian Filmmakers Association (AHC) from 2005 to 2009.
In 1975 he directed the film Haiti, The way to Freedom (Ayiti, men chimin Libete) a documentary critical of the Jean-Claude Duvalier dictatorship which was shown around the world. Antonin spent several years in exile and returned to Haiti in 1986 after the fall of the dictatorship.[2] He created the community center Petion Bolivar, a center that promotes culture and political debates. He organizes debates regularly under the name Thursday’s Public Forum (Forum Libre du Jeudi).
Antonin has produced and directed more than twenty documentaries and two films, Piwouli (Piwouli and the Zenglendo) and Does The President Have Aids (Le président a-t-il le Sida?) starring Jimmy Jean-Louis who plays The Haitian in the American television series Heroes.
Awards:
– 1975 Festival of Havana Festival of Havana
– 2002 Djibril Diop Mambety for Women of Courage at the Cannes Festival.
– 2006 FESPACO Special Award Of the Committee of Struggle against aids of Burkina Faso Does the Président have AIDS?
– 2006 Festival Vues d’Afrique de Montreal Mention speciale du Jury Does the Président have AIDS?
– 2007 FESPACO Paul Robeson prize for Does the President Have Aids?
– 2009 FESPACO Paul Robeson prize for Jacques Roumain: The Passion for a Country.
– 2011 FESPACO Paul Robeson prize for The loves of a zombi or can a zombi be president?
– 2011 MPAH Haiti Movie Awards Lifetime Achievement Award * Motion Picture Association of Haiti.
Films of Arnold:
- 1974: Duvalier accused, 20min., 16 mm.
- 1975: Duvalier condemned, 40 min. 16 mm.
- 1975: Haiti, The Way to Freedom. (First long shotage Haïtian movie)
- 1976: Naive Art and Repression in Haïti , 45 min. Color 16 mm.
- 1981: Can a Tonton Macoute be a poet ?, 35 min. Color 16 mm.
- 1984: The Right to Speak, (Radio Haïti, 1980) 15 min. Color 16 mm.
- 1988: 20 Years of Work with the Poors, 45 min. Video.
- 1988: The Manioc and the Life of Maréchal, 40 min. Video.
- 1989: Drugs don’t Forgive! 15 min. Video.
- 1989: Children’s Rights 15 min. Video.
- 1993: Port-au-Prince World War III has already happened. 15 min. Video.
- 1998: What is a Union? 20 min. Video.
- 1999: Citizen’s Rights 20 min. Video.
- 2000: A Woman’s Courage 17 min. Video.
- 2001: Tiga: Haïti, Dream, Possession, Creation, Folly. 52min. Video.
- 2001: Beauty against Poverty at Jalousie. 13 min. Video.
- 2001: The Lantern Maker. 14 min. Video.
- 2001: Old People’s Dignity. 15 min. Video.
- 2002: Piwouli and the Zenglendo. 90 min. Video.
- 2002: Cédor or the beauty of being modest. 39 min. Video.
- 2003: Albert Mangonès, public space. 52 min. Video.
- 2003: André Pierre, the one who paints what’s good. 26 min. Video.
- 2003: Ti Machin, the woman mechanic. 13 min. VVideo.
- 2003: Youth, sexuality and Aids: three 2 min vignettes. Video.
- 2003: Youth Carnival against AIDS at Jacmel. 15 min. Video.
- 2003: Remembering, Dahomeen Community of Vodoo. 13 min. Video.
- 2003: All Children are Children. 13 min. Video.
- 2004: I don’t want to give HIV/AIDS to my child. 13 min. Video.
- 2004: Economy of survival in Haiti. 26min. Video.
- 2004: GNB against Attila, 120 min. color. Video.
- 2006: Does the Président have AIDS? 123 min, color. Video.
- 2006: Children in Danger. 10 min, color. Video.
- 2007: Préfete Duffaut, piety and urban imagination, 30 min., color, vidéo.
- 2007: Aubelin de Jolicoeur, Mister Haïti, 26 min., color, vidéo..
- 2008: Jacques Roumain: The Passion for a Country 118 min, color
- 2008: Five true stories, 30’, color. Video.
- 2008: To build the future, 30’, color. Video.
- 2009: Loves of a zombi, fiction, 1 h. 30’, color. Video.
- 2009: To know is to be able to, 20’, color. Video.
- 2009: Can sculpture save the village of Noailles? 32 min, color. Video.
- 2010: The January 12th Earthquake or Haïti: apocalypse now, 18 min, color. Video.
- 2010: The blue planet of Lucner Lazard, 23 min,color. Video.
- 2010: Once upon a time Pericles 6 min, color. Video.
- 2011: Six femmes d’exception 88 min., color, Vidéo.
- 2012: Herby, Jazz and Haitian Music 82 min., color DVD French and Creole subtitled in English and Spanish
- 2012: Gerard Gourgue: the man who could have changed the course of history 122 min., color DVD French and Creole subtitled in English and Spanish
- 2013: “The Kingdom of Impunity” 65 min, color, DVD French and Creole subtitled in English and Spanish
- 2014: “Georges Corvington: Port-au-Prince, my unique and only lovwe” 52 min, color, DVD, French and Creole with subtitles/voice over in English and Spanish.
Source: Wikipedia, Academy of French Film.
