ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Etant Dupain is a journalist, filmmaker, and community organizer. For over a decade, he has worked as a producer on documentaries and for international news media outlets including Al Jazeera, TeleSur, BBC, CNN, Netflix, PBS, and Vice. Etant founded an alternative media project in Haiti to enable citizen journalists to provide access to information in Haitian Creole for and about internally-displaced people, aid accountability, and politics. Now, moved by the strength of his mother and the women known as the Madan Sara who make Haiti’s economy run, he’s making his first personal film. 

WHY MADAN SARA?

I first met Clotide Achille, a Madan Sara in Haiti, in a public market in the capital city known as Marche Tèt Dlo. As a journalist, it normally it takes me a substantial amount of time to convince someone to partake in just a short interview. In this instance, Clotide quickly agreed as she understood immediately the importance of telling this story. As a woman who raised five children on her own in the face of unlikely odds, her story is an essential one to share. “I did my part, now it’s for the new generation to do their part and fight for a better future, for themselves and for their country as a whole,” says Clotide.

I witnessed the power of Madan Sara through my mother who worked tirelessly to provide for her children. Now, as Clotide said, it is my turn to do my part as a journalist and filmmaker.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE FILM

HATS OFF TO THE MADAN SARA | A PIECE BY ETANT DUPAIN

CHAPO BA POU MADAN SARA | YON ATIK PA ETANT DUPAIN

MARKETS AND MARGINS | AN INTERVIEW WITH ETANT DUPAIN