RENE DEPESTRE, DIARY OF A PHENOMENAL SEAMAN

Synopsis:
In 1804, Haïti became the first black colony to win its independance.
In 2004, from his adopted town in France at the foot of the Corbières, the poet-writer René Depestre – the prolific author of such works as Encore une mer à traverser, Non-assistance à personne en danger and Hadriana dans tous mes rêves – reflects on the tragic fate of his native island,on his works and his own journey through the century…
At the young age of 19, Depestre published his first collection of poems, Etincelles, which earned him instant recognition. As a member of the revolutionary student movment of 1946, he was then arrested and emprisoned before being banished from the island; Over the course of his numerous travels – in France but also in Prague, Cuba, Austria, Chile, Argentina and Brazil – the nomadic poet crossed paths with many of the world’s leading political and literary figures : Breton, Eluard, Neruda, Aragon, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Mao, Ho Chi Min…
In the automn of his life, he remains an ardent witness, ever vigilant and unusually lucid.
Shot in Port-au-Prince and in Jacmel ( his home town ) in Haiti, in Fort-de-France, Prague, this film is interwoven with testimony from Aimé Césaire, Régis Debray, René de Obaldia, Maurice Pons, Yannick Lahens.

Broadcast:
CFInternational
TLT Toulouse
TV10 Angers

Festivals:
Best portrait International Art Film Festival (Montreal 2006 )
Ouagadougou (2005)
FIPATEL (Biarritz 2005)
International Film Festival Amiens (2005)