Samuel Suffren, Les Vagues dans les yeux

Artist's News

Samuel Suffren © Lisa van Katwijk

Samuel Suffren (born 1992 in Port-au-Prince) is a Haitian visual artist, director and producer. His films form part of a ‘cinema-poem’ approach in which narrative and photography come together freely, creating open and sensitive narrative forms.

My father dreamt of going to the United States. In 1981, he and around twenty others set sail on a makeshift boat in search of the American dream. They never made it. From this fantasy, and from my own personal story, a trilogy was born: at the heart of each film, a loved one leaves, leaving behind a family condemned to wait. How can one carry on living when the absence drags on? – Samuel Suffren

Haitian director Samuel Suffren will present his trilogy of short films, Les vagues dans les yeux, in Paris this autumn, at the Cinémathèque française and the National Museum of the History of Immigration (Palais de la Porte Dorée).

Comprising three short films, this trilogy is characterised by the dream of exile to the United States and love for a country, Haiti. Each film adopts a different perspective within the same family circle. Through his use of ellipsis and the pictorial quality of his framing, Samuel Suffren succeeds in bringing the figures of absence to life. By shifting reality into the realm of the imagination and vice versa, he creates an intimate and political work of great cinematic power.

Cœur Bleu

Marianne and Pétion are waiting anxiously for news of their son, who has gone to the United States. As the silence drags on, their hopes and fears grow, revealing the rifts in their own lives. The American dream, now a fragile promise, seems to be slipping from their grasp, whilst the line between dream and reality becomes increasingly blurred.

Dreams Like Paper Boats

Édouard has been living in Port-au-Prince with his daughter Zara for five years. Since his wife left, he and his daughter have received only one cassette from her, a long time ago. After years of separation, what can one expect from a love that is so far away?

Agwe

François leaves Haiti on a sailing boat bound for the United States, leaving behind Mirlande, his wife, who is six months pregnant. Ten years later, having heard nothing from him, the woman, who is still expecting, makes an offering to Agwe, the god of the oceans.