Join us for the screening of an Haitian film followed by a discussion about the current issues affecting Haïti

In collaboration with Street Team Productions based in New York City, the Alliance Française de Philadelphie is screening a short film selected at the Montréal International Black Film Festival

 

N'AP Boule features a young couple trying to get to a hospital so they can safely have their first child. To get there they have to navigate protests, insecurity, and gang violence. The film provides a small window into the situation Haitians currently face everyday.

The screening  will be followed by a Q&A and a discussion with Alexandrine Benjamin, film writer and director, the main actors and a panel of invitees to talk about the film, the current issues affecting Haïti, access to medical facilities, and black maternal health.

N’AP Boule (Through the Barricades)

written, directed and produced by Alexandrine Benjamin• 2024• 22min • Fiction• Drama with Kenny Laguerre, Ericka Julie Jean Louis

Languages : Créole with French Subtitles/English Subtitles

Film Synopsis:

In the midst of the treacherous social protests that have paralyzed Haiti for months, a modest couple must face blocked roads and murderous gangs in the hope of finding a place to give birth safely.

N'AP Boule Film Trailer

The discussion panel will include :

- Alexandrine Benjamin, film director (online from Puerto Rico), 

- Kenny Laguerre, Ericka Julie Jean Louis, film actors (online from Haiti and Canada), 

- Lu Childs from Street Team Productions (the production and distribution of Haitian films)

- Dr. Alissa M Jordan, Associate Director, Center for Experimental Ethnography - University of Pennsylvania. Her work explores intersection of healing, embodiment, and reproductive justice for Black birthing people in Haiti

- Chantal Westby, is an artist and environmental activist, she has led a not-for-profit residency foundation in Haiti after the devastating earthquake of 2010. She is a long time Member of the Alliance Française in Philadelphia.

The main discussion will be held in English with some French and Crèole

Alexandrine Benjamin is a Haitian filmmaker, and  holds a master's degree in film production from the University of Greenwich in England. Her works mostly focus on social justice issues such as human rights, gender violence, and  insecurity. She recently directed N Ap Boule, an award-winning short film that tells the heartbreaking story of a Haitian pregnant couple looking for a safe place to give birth in the midst of the Haitian socio-political movement “peyilòk”. For more than five years, Ms. Benjamin acted as project manager for Lakou Kajou, an engaging media program produced by the small American media Blue Butterfly which raises awareness among Haitian children about literacy and maths, but more importantly about how to solve problems. The filmmaker is now producing her first feature film “O Negatif”, promoting the full emancipation and inclusion of people living with HIV around the world. Alexandrine believes that education is the path to a better future for her home country, Haiti; and if her art can be a tool to this end, it is the way to go.

Street Team is a company that produces documentaries, web series, feature films, podcasts, books, and plays.  Previous projects include the Madan Sara Documentary, Weed Smokers Anonymous Podcast, and the Behind The Boards Podcast. One of their latest projects is working on N'AP Boule.

Dr Alissa M Jordan  is a cultural and medical anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as Associate Director of the Center for Experimental Ethnography and teaches in the Department of Anthropology with affiliated faculty appointments in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and the Graduate School of Education. Her work explores intersection of healing, embodiment, and reproductive justice for Black birthing people in Haiti, and in the broader global public health spheres in which they are involved. She uses ethnographic methods of collaborative filmmaking, audio production, illustration, and participatory activism to explore the alternative worlds that Black women create by caring for their bodies in their own homes and spaces.

Alissa recent publications and films include  Haitian Women's Stories of Maternal Medicine, Debt and Hospital Detention for Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

 "The Shame Herb: Birth and Debt in Hospital Detention"  for the American Anthropologist. Her first book ‘Atlas of Nanm: Bodily Openings and Encounters in Haiti’ is under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Drinks and Refreshments will be served

*** WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ***

Day: Friday, Oct 10th, 2025
Time: 6:30pm
Duration: 1.5 hours
Location: Alliance Francaise, 1420 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Language: English, French, Crèole

Fee: $10 for AF Members / $15 for non AF Members

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