Home Away From Haiti (2014)

This documentary film is about Haitian immigrants who relocated to Mount Olive, North Carolina after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which had an estimated death toll of 230,000 and left millions without homes. Prior to the earthquake, the U.S. Census recorded zero Haitian-born residents in Mount Olive. With fewer than 5,000 total residents, the small agricultural town became home to several Haitian migrants. This documentary explores how this phenomenon came to be and why.

In 2014, I independently wrote, directed, filmed, and edited this documentary as an undergraduate student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of Professor Todd Taylor's Multimedia Composition (ENGL 318). The film was later picked up by the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University’s Franklin Humanities Institute. A decade after making the film, it was highlighted by Ayanna Legros in The Guardian.