Life Outside of Pearl

At the end of September, I attended a dinner at the Beverly Hills home of Jeanette Ndhlovu, the South African Consul General for the US western region in honor of a visit from the Minister of Art and Culture, Minister Lulu Xingwana. Minister Xingwana was in Los Angeles to develop collaborations between the creative community, especially the film and media communities and promote the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which will be in stadiums all across South Africa next year. This will be a mega international event. It was a lively gathering of people of African descent from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and the US. I met several people who I will feature on OD-CAP in the coming month but the first is a young Haitian filmmaker, Johnny Desarmes. He has been screening his full-length film, Life Outside of Pearl (2002) about a Haitian-American family who tries to maintain their cultural identity while adapting to life in the United States. As their lives unravel, the stresses of urban life in their home in New Jersey reveal family secrets causing fissures between the parents and their children.

Johnny offers a different picture of Haitians. With an all-Haitian cast, he shows a family that had migrated to another country, living in a lower-middle class US neighborhood, trying to realize some of the dreams that caused them to leave Haiti in the first place. In his own words he says:

In doing my film, LIFE OUTSIDE OF PEARL, I wanted to give audiences a snapshot of Haiti. Not the poverty-stricken country that you may have seen on television. Instead, I wanted to present a slice of life never before depicted on the big screen with an all-Haitian cast. Entertainers of Haitians descent have made significant contributions to the entertainment business, and I called upon music icon Carole Demesmin and international actor Jimmy Jean-Louise to help me tell this story--to give my people a voice.

I want people, especially African Americans, to think beyond its American borders, and become acquainted with a country and its people that [are] literally in the backyard of the United States. In doing this film, it was important for me to help bridge the gap of understanding between our two worlds … between our two cultures. Because of Haiti’s beauty, it’s been nicknamed “the Pearl of the Caribbean.” Hence, the title is my way of paying homage to my homeland. After watching LIFE OUTSIDE OF PEARL, I hope you’ll want to know a little bit more about Haiti."

Johnny Desarmes