I have remained silent for many years about Pluie D'espoir and...

J. Christian Sajous - September 25 2009, 6:28 PM

I have remained silent for many years about Pluie D'espoir and my involvement with this movie in 2000/2005; Also, it was at my request that Jacques Roc remained silent about me and my contribution to his project.

I am a rather private person and feel there need not be any unnecessary drumbeats.

Now, I think it may be useful to clear the air regarding the events that led to the movie's production.

First a little background:
I have known Jacques Roc since we used to vacation in Miragoane together in our early teens.

( 45 years ago ) Later we met again in NY and remained in close touch since.

The idea of making a movie came to Jacky and was communicated to me with great enthusiasm in the late Sixties while the Woodstock concert was happening in NY and the Hippie movement was in full swing.

This has remained a dream of Jacky since then.
Now the facts:
By 2000 Jacques had most of the script written and called me regarding finishing touches and corrections.

We worked on the script for several months ( sometimes all night, on the phone, by email, even telepathy sometimes, etc) and had a rough but good draft of it by 2002. In the meantime we made a few commercials for Unibank and others (remember UNICARD?

PA Gin Poblem?) to pass the time between work sessions of screenwriting clean-up. Up to then we had not agreed that I would do any on-screen work. The beginning of the production coincided with my trip to Haiti to bring my mother back to live out her last years.

While there I met with Jacques again and went over what was the last editing session for the script.

We kept rewriting, adding and removing this and that until it occurred to me that the Phillipe character had been written in such a way that his opinions and actions as well as his political leanings closely resembled mine. I told Jacques that nobody could do Phillipe better than I could and for the sake of authenticity I would be willing to remain in Haiti and do this part. He agreed immediately.

I suggested that the story be told in a morally correct way. There were some conditions to my involvement.

I agreed to do it if the movie was devoid of superfluous nudity, sex, drinking, smoking, profanity, drug consumption and/or unnecessary violence.

My rationale was that we have a responsibility to the many children who would eventually see this work and that we ought to bring them the right message and not add to the pollution that had already been directed at them by Hollywood etc...

I told Jacques that we are but one voice among thousands in the ears of the youth of our country and we had better be the RIGHT voice, and besides we cannot call ourselves story tellers true story tellers if we have to rely on those crutches to tell a good story.

For that reason Jacques ( who was of this opinion as well ) not only agreed, but decided to change the story line to send Toussaint back home to his wife at the end without having compromised his personal integrity with the nurse.

He felt that this was a saner message to send to the youth.

I was elated at this turn of events because it seemed to me that it also sent a message of decentralization of the urban areas, and development of the rural parts of the country.

( there was bit of struggle between us about whether or not he would have a sexual realtionship with the nurse or not. I don't remember why we ended up excluding that part but I am glad we did )
It was decided that it would be Phillipe that encouraged Toussaint to return to his home and family and contribute to his own village in every way possible with his new wealth.

It was my pleasure to work with Ginou Mondesir, who played Philippe's wife though at first, before I met her I wanted an older wife for Phillipe.But Jacques correctly insisted on Ginou whose involvement he felt would add just the right dose of drama and conflict to Phillipe's life. (The scene on the Balcony with Ginou was one I wrote myself.

It was based on a song Aznavour had written for Piaf in the 60s named "Voila Que Tu Reviens".Check out those lyrics sometime and you will see what I mean. Jacques added some elements to it and in the end it worked really well.)
It is correct that I am not an actor, nor did I pretend to be. I am a painter ( www.sajousart.com ) But that is the point, really.

That I am a non-actor is exactly the reason I wanted to do it. Since I AM Phillipe; I wouldn't have to PLAY Phillipe.

It was not about acting for me but about putting forth a proper socio-political message told in a morally correct way, artfully camouflaged by what seemed like it might at first be a love story between Toussaint and the nurse, but turned out to be a story of an even greater love between him, his country and his family while in a struggle to save his dignity as a displaced Haitian Man. That we safely salvaged his purity despite his four years in the concrete jungle was for me the greatest triumph.

I am really proud of the work I did on this project.

With respect to the delay in the release, I am reserving judgment and am continuing to trust that Jacques knows best what to do the interest of this project.

I invite all to do the same. The pirates may have done their criminal deed but we continue to cling to high ground and I am sure Jacques's original movie will still be proudly standing when the dust settles.

Best Regards

J.Christian Sajous
sajousart at aol.com
www.sajousart.com

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