Bay Lodyans

<p><b>Considers how popular Haitian films not only provide entertainment but also help audiences in Haiti and the diaspora think through daily challenges.</b></p><p>In Haitian Creole <i>bay lodyans</i> means to tell stories to an audience and more generally to entertain. This book is the first to analyze popular contemporary Haitian films looking especially at how they respond to the needs and desires of Haitian audiences in and beyond Haiti. Produced between 2000 and 2018 and largely shot with digital cameras and sometimes cellphones these films focus on the complexities of community nostalgia belonging identity and the emotional landscapes of exile and diaspora. They reflect sociopolitical and cultural issues related to family language im/migration religion gender sexuality and economic hardship. Using storytelling and other less traditionally academic techniques Cécile Accilien advances Haitian epistemological frameworks. <i>Bay Lodyans</i> integrates terms and concepts from Haitian culture such as <i>jerans</i> and <i>kafou</i> (derived from the French words for to manage and crossroads respectively) and includes interviews with Haitian filmmakers actors and scholars in order to challenge the dominance of Western theoretical approaches and perspectives.</p>