Wednesday 19.05. 2010
20:10 - 21:00
Kosmostheater

POTO MITAN:  HAITIAN WOMEN, PILLARS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

(Directed by Renée Bergan & Mark Schuller, USA/Haiti 2009, 50 min., with English subtitles)

Told through the lives of five courageous Haitian women workers, Poto Mitan gives the global economy a human face.  Each woman’s personal story explains, how neoliberal globalization is gendered and how it impacts Haiti. And while the documentary offers in-depth understanding of Haiti, its focus on women’s subjugation, worker exploitation, poverty, and resistance demonstrates these are global struggles. 

Jean-Marie details dual struggles as a woman and worker: employed in a garment factory, she toils under miserable conditions to give her children the schooling she was denied because of education's high costs and gender discrimination. Living and braving death in Cité Soleil, Solange details how Haiti’s current violence stems from a long-brewing economic crisis and the global apparel industry’s inherent instability. Frustrated with male-dominated unions, Frisline joined a woman’s organization, offering a gendered and class analysis of Haiti’s contemporary situation. Working for thirty years, Thérèse brings a historical perspective and a comparative analysis. Thérèse’s ailments also highlight the critical state of public health. Pushed off her land by foreign agricultural policies, Hélène leads a new grassroots campaign against violence, encouraging women to defend themselves. These five brave women demonstrate that despite monumental obstacles in a poor country like Haiti, collective action makes change possible.

 Initiated by the subjects themselves, Poto Mitan aims to inspire solidarity activism to end injustice in the global economy.