The Rainy Season

Through a series of personal journeys, interwoven with scenes from the country's past, this documents Amy Wilentz's travels in Haiti from 1986, days before the ousting of Haiti's President for Life, Jean-Claude Duvalier. She paints a portrait of the streets, countryside, voodoo and religion.

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Amy Wilentz brings to life a turbulent and fascinating country, Haiti, through a series of personal journeys, interwoven with scenes from the country's extraordinary past. Opening with her arrival in 1986, days before the ousting of Haiti's President for Life, Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, Wilentz captures a country electric with the expectation of change. She then shows how that hope turned to disappointment when liberation led not to reform, but to chaos and stagnation. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, Wilentz leads us through the streets, bustling by day, and by night filled with gunfire and burning tyres. We explore a countryside where young soldiers control road-blocks and farmers struggle to survive, and where belief in voodoo is as strong as it ever was. Wilentz offers vivid portraits of today's Haitians - Father Aristide the rebel priest and spiritual force behind the opposition; the various military-backed leaders who have passed through Haiti's revolving door of power; the wild kids who roam the streets - and the foreigners in Haiti: the State Department men; the Christian missionaries; the international press corps who jet in for each coup.
In the tradition of Joan Didion and Paul Theroux, The Rainy Season is modern reportage of great resonance and beauty.