Ghosts of Cité Soleil

It's 2004 in the slum of Cité Soleil, Haiti. 2Pac and Bily are brothers and two of the leaders of the Chiméres, loyal violent young gang supporters of President Aristide. Lele is a French aid worker. Billy likes Lele but she gets involved with 2Pac. As opposition forces rise up to take on Aristide, the brothers clash over loyalties and the mounting pressures. Eventually Aristide is overthrown and the brothers are hunted by the new government.

This documentary is a bit rough and muddy. It has the gritty streets of Cité Soleil. It has great access to these guys and brings the camera right into this disturbing world. Some parts of this documentary seems to be random which leaves me questioning if any of this is manufactured. It's always tough to figure out whether 2Pac is sincere or simply full of bravado. The movie needs to dig a little deeper into the brothers. It may not be possible but it would be great for the brothers to have a heart to heart without the machismo. It also needs a narration or a presenter to clarify the situation in their lives and their feelings. For example, 2Pac was arrested by Aristide's men but the movie doesn't really explain what happened.

I saw this tonight (8/17/07)at Facets in Chicago and was handed propaganda by American people who are apparently jumping on another cause that blames America for everything. This film did not appear to have an agenda at all to me. I actually was wishing it had a little more of one because I kept getting confused about who was good and who was bad. There is a reason I was confused, because they didn't portray anyone as completely good or bad. The place seems a mess.

The people handing me the papers definitely had an agenda just like some of the reviewers on here. In fact one of the papers I got has word for word the same thing as one of the reviewers. People yell out racist and compare the director to Leni Riffenstahl and we are supposed to think it's the film is biased??? The propaganda against the film is what seems to be blatantly biased. It is unquestionably pro Aristide.

I don't understand how anyone can call this film racist. That seems to be a typical ploy to get people emotional and disregard any facts. I didn't see any of the Hatian people as evil thugs, I saw them as victims and survivors used and manipulated by corrupt governments.

This film maker did not appear to be for deposing Aristide at all. I got the impression that both leaders were corrupt which is most likely the case. It definitely looked like the new government had the brothers killed unjustly. The brothers were not shown as completely good or bad either. We see their deplorable living conditions and their bones prominent on their scrawny bodies as they showered and know that they are desperate.

I think this film maker did an excellent job because no one came out blameless. Some reviewers on here want you to believe that Aristide was blameless and that the gangsters were made up, despite actual footage of gangsters attacking demonstrators. Even if Aristide didn't order it, he should have at least gone after the gangs.

Its a couple of years since I saw this docuflick, so what you get here is the essence that stuck in my memory.

The two brothers and main characters are living idolizing a gangsta lifestyle and are far more gangstas than the celebrity gangstas that they idolize. These are the real gangstas from real life Partly by choice but even more by need of survival, their fascination with with the celebrity gangstas most of all represent the dream of surviving their present situation (with success). The potentially lethal and ever present tension with their surrounding environment and each other, is something that I have never seen like this in a documentary. they seem to have no choice but aggression. As a viewer you get the feeling that any sign of weakness shown by the main characters will bring them closer to death but so will their aggressiveness. This film made the African child soldier "Johnny Mad Dog" much more realistic for me.

This movie is not without flaws, but portraying it as a movie with a political agenda is a mistake. Its a movie about desperate people interacting in a poor, violent and desperate environment. The frame of the story happens to be Aristides Haiti but it could have been a lot of places.

The 9-star rating is due to the very close and personal relationship between the camera and the characters and the danger that the makers of this movie has exposed themselves to.

(2006) Ghosts Of Cite Soleil (Haitian with English subtitles) DOCUMENTARY

Co-cinematography, written and co-directed by Asger Leth, with mildly interesting documentary centering on the gangs that exist around an impoverished part of Haiti called Cite Soleil and are over run by gangs one of them called the Chiméres once hired by the dictator of Haiti by the name of President Aristide. The documentary centers on the leader of the Chimera gang who calls himself 2Pac after an American rapper/ hip hop artist since he's a huge fan of his music and want to be as successful as him some day who often collides with his brother Bily in terms of turf and ownership and eventually gets involved with a French UN nurse which doesn't go anywhere. The film contains a lot of jabbering and macho talk but that's what impoverished gangs do and because it's deemed as a dangerous place to live, the film makers tend to avoid getting themselves into trouble and asked questions instead of picking sides. Definitely not for everybody.

Despite a few rather dour write up's on this site, I admired 'Ghosts Of Citi Soleil'. If anybody followed the news in Haiti a few years ago, it's dictator, Aristade was deposed, leaving the country in a state of chaos. This "cinema verite" documentary concerns two brothers on opposite sides of the whole ugly scene (one, pro Aristade,the other, con). Both brothers are involved in vicious street gangs, although there is still a sense of brotherly love between the two, despite the odds. The film documents a warts & all approach to the whole gang problem that makes daily life a misery in the ghetto where it all takes place (it's very gritty, complete with a firecracker string of f-bombs, gun violence & general ugliness). The great Wyclef Jean not only composed the incidental score to the film, but also has some on screen time, as well (for those who have been living in a cave for the last ten or more years now, Jean is a musician,producer,arranger, and former member of the Fugees). If I have any quirks about this film, it's sometime hard to pin a bead on the film's camera work (the hand held camera work does tend at times to shake around a little too much). Apart from that,for anybody who has an iron clad will (and doesn't get too offended by rough language), Ghosts Of Citi Soleil is a grim, but interesting window into another culture,generally ignored by America.