Stirring Water (2008) Documentary 15 Minutes
Filming: Haiti , Production: USA
Directed by John Kamys
English with intertitles in English, French, and Kreyòl
Interview
John Kamys is an award winning Chicago-based composer, musician and now documentarian. I spoke with the first-time director to talk about his new short film, "Stirring Water" and what inspired him to travel, at great personal risk, to unstable and impoverished Haiti to chronicle the lives of its people.
Neil Woulfe
Senior News Editor, Radaronline.com - Senior Executive Producer, Fox News Eight Time Emmy Award Winner and Winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award
Why Haiti? What inspired you to travel there? Did you ever feel in danger there?
The inspiration was a cheap airline ticket. Seriously, I had just completed a long project and wanted to get away for a bit. While looking at cheap flights from Chicago I found a ticket to Port au Prince for $232.00. A sort of “if not now...when?” type thought went through my head and I booked the flight. It was that spontaneous. I had no intention of making "Stirring Water." I didn’t even bring a camera. I wanted to see Haiti. The night before I was supposed to leave, the State Department issued a travel warning, but I had made a commitment to the trip and disregarded that warning. I arrived during the peak of the April 2008 food riots. The streets were literally on fire. I may have been in danger but I didn’t feel it. Sometimes I felt uncomfortable, but never unsafe. Actually, the entire time I was in Haiti, including the second trip in May/June when “Stirring Water” was shot, I felt tremendously … present. Everything was new all the time.
Did you have a pre-conceived notion of what you would encounter once in Haiti? What did you think it would be like, and how did that compare to the reality of life there?
Haiti, its people and its history have always intrigued me. Before going, I researched, and read as much as possible, and yes, I had heard all kinds of horror stories. On the surface Haiti seemed impenetrable. I didn’t know what it would really be like and accepted that fact. My bottom line became something to the tune of, regardless of what you read or hear, there are over 8 million people living there. Living there is the key. And yes there are many sad and horrible things happening in Haiti and to the Haitian people,…still they persevere as a people and a culture and are in fact LIVING…stirring water to make butter, if you will. There is a prayer from the time of the Renaissance that begins, “In the midst of life, we are in death…” I think of that prayer when I think of my observations of Haiti, a proud and spirited people with inspiring stories and a dynamic culture mingled with the suffering, the hunger, the lack of clean water, the corruption…the misery that exists in that country. I believe "Stirring Water" captures this juxtaposition. It is a 15 minute slice of life that takes into account things simply as they are.
While you were in Haiti, you stayed at a home for boys…what struck you most about the young people there? Did you sense they know the depths of the poverty and hardship in which they live? Do they have hope for their future.
The boys at the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys are some of the most delightful people you would ever want to meet. I was quite impressed. The residents are former street children or "restavek," which is a Creole term for a child-slave. The boys are certainly aware of the world around them, yet the home itself provides a safe haven, a structured lifestyle, and a spiritual base…those guys hit the day running, up every morning at 5 a.m. for prayers and along with school, and other activities, they earn money by working for the guesthouse of the home. I discovered the guesthouse and home by sheer chance, following a haphazard series of links on the internet, and sight-unseen reserved a room. The experience was transforming, the guesthouse is quite charming, and the meals are out of this world! I took to calling it The Four Seasons - Port au Prince. The original intent of my second trip to Haiti, was to document the home, it’s founder, and the story of St. Joseph’s, but the more I experienced life at St. Joseph’s, the more I realized it is such a big and wonderful story that it warrants the magnitude of feature-length documentation, something I was unprepared to do at the time. Meanwhile, as if it had a mind of its own, the unrelated "Stirring Water" began to take shape. I think the boys of St. Joseph’s know they have a future. They possess the understanding of their potential and that is a tribute to the work of Michael Geilenfeld, the founder of the home and his remarkable staff. Some day I hope to return to Haiti with the resources and manpower to accomplish my original goal.
Tell me about the people there. Was there one person there whose story particularly moved you?
I was fortunate to be able to forge friendships with the staff and other guests of the home quickly. What was so moving, and quite frankly amazing, was that each person staying at the guesthouse had made a personal commitment to some aspect of Haiti’s development. I met visiting missionaries, doctors, an author, educators, interpreters, a group of IT professionals and these people, in turn, introduced me to many Haitians who were involved in a wide range humanitarian causes. Really, it was rather stunning. I had fallen into a world where everyone I met had a tremendous sense of purpose and that purpose was the betterment of the world. You just sort of have to sit back and go wow, exhilarated and humbled at the same time. A doctor from Ohio named Tracee Karaffa particularly impressed me. She and her husband founded an organization called Healing Arts Missions (HAM). HAM provides essential services and employment to people in an area called Dumay. A substantial portion of Stirring Water was shot at facilities built by HAM in Dumay. They are quite remarkable and impressive by any standards. Tracee, who makes four medical mission trips to Haiti a year, also introduced me to Jean Marc Bazil, an interpreter who became a friend and whose personal stories are central to Stirring Water.
Why did you decide to title your film "Stirring Water"?
In an interview, Jean Marc told me that the Haitians have a proverb that says, “I stir water to make butter.” When viewing everything I had shot, I didn’t realize or think I had a film at all until I came across Jean Marc saying that, and suddenly it all made sense. That proverb summed up many of my observations rather succinctly and in that I discovered a base from which to construct a narrative. I reduced the proverb to simply Stirring Water for the title. I think the idea of Stirring Water is genuinely universal. Regardless of the outcome, it is in our nature to persevere, and we do so against all odds. We try to squeeze blood from a turnip, to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, to stir water to make butter, we have to, because every now and then we luck out and get soup from a stone.
The film features many striking, even disturbing images. Is there one image that especially moved you?
There is one image that I find particularly grotesque which I won’t discuss now. But, in terms of really moving me,… there is an old woman in the section shot in the Arrondissment Leogane. She is the grandmother of three brothers I met in Port au Prince. However, she lives in a small rural village without any modern conveniences, and I mean early modern “conveniences” like running water, or the telephone, or electricity. There is no school, or hospital, or even a church in the area. She is almost blind and her worldly goods are few. Regardless, there was such a sense of pride and dignity in the way she stood, in the way she grasped my hand firmly, in the greeting she offered me that I took pause. I have no idea what she said nor did I ask to have it translated, it didn’t matter. I was overcome by her grace, the beauty of her being so much who she was. I think that is wonderful. I think she is wonderful.
The film uses a mixture of English, Creole and French. Why did you decide to do this?
I wanted to create the feeling of actually being in a foreign country. There is a certain discomfort you experience when traveling in a country where you don’t know the language or culture. You have to resign yourself to that not-knowingness and do the best you can to figure things out. Simple transactions become difficult and inevitably your lack of understanding forces you to take more time than usual to accomplish a task, to get from here to there…leaving one with no choice but to look at the world more closely. I like that feeling. It’s inspiring. We learn more. Having to work a little harder, and take the time to figure things out … actually investing yourself … that’s what makes the trip all the more interesting and worthwhile.