Tilling the soil
The Agronomist looks at the muckraker behind a Haitian radio revolution.

By David Fear

IF THE NAME Jean Dominique elicits head-scratching, then you, like me, didn't grow up in Haiti in the '70s. The slight gentleman with the commanding voice and omnipresent pipe made his name broadcasting incendiary, from-the-streets radio news reports during the Duvalier-led era of political corruption and lies. But he hadn't planned on becoming the pirate-transmission voice of the people: Dominique's original field of interest was agronomy, the study of crop production and environmental management. He always insisted that he was first and foremost "a man of the land," even after he turned to fertilizing the minds of poverty-stricken workers. This led to a stint as a freelance journalist for Radio Haiti Inter, the only media outlet not controlled by the repressive ruling regime. A few years later Dominique bought the station and began detailing the hypocrisy of the ruling class for his largely working-class audience. He quickly proceeded to the top of the government's "enemy list."

"I originally heard about Jean after I'd become obsessed with Haitian art and had visited the country for the first time, in '86," director Jonathan Demme said, speaking over the phone from New York. "We arrived in a country where the shackles of a dictatorship had just been thrown off. It was on the cusp of having its first real free elections, and there was this unbelievable collective passion about democracy taking place.... I mean, there's a 70 percent illiteracy rate, yet the entire population is genuinely plugged into the political context of this moment in their history! It was coming from music, street theater, and, primarily, one radio station. All roads essentially started leading back to this one man."

As Demme's interest in the country over the years produced several informative documentaries (see 1987's Haiti: Dreams of Democracy and 1992's Haiti: Killing the Dream), the idea of a film focusing solely on Dominique began to develop in the director's mind. "He was one of the most charismatic men I'd ever met, and when he was forced to leave Haiti for a second time, in '91, the idea of doing this portrait of the journalist in exile really took hold. The funny thing was, Jean really wasn't sold on it: 'I'm not that interesting. The film sounds like it would be boring.' But when he realized he could report on the state of his country via my camera, he used the platform I'd given him as best he could."

At the time Demme started The Agronomist, the filmmaker was simply hoping to capture Haiti's democratic rebirth through the eyes of its most vocal muckraker. A growing friendship between the two men enabled Demme to continue documenting Dominique and his wife, fellow human rights advocate Michèle Montas, as they went back home, only to find their former ally Jean-Bertrand Aristide slipping into an all-too-familiar cycle of despotism. Unable to just stand by and watch, the couple returned to Radio Haiti Inter and began openly criticizing the ruling powers with an even fiercer tongue than before.

"Here was a couple who had earned the right to live a life of intellectual pursuit free from turmoil," Demme said. "They were exiled to New York – twice! – where they easily could have spent the rest of their days lecturing or fighting the good fight from a metropolitan city instead of a life-threatening environment. But Jean was possessed by this sense of craziness.... He was a zealot; he was 'Jean Quixote.' He felt he needed to be in the fray." On April 3, 2000, Dominique and his driver were assassinated as they entered the Radio Haiti Inter building. Their assailants still haven't been caught.

With its release coming on the heels of yet another coup in Haiti, the documentary might be seen as supporting the "regime change" – though, as the movie makes abundantly clear, neither Dominique nor Demme support the standard U.S. policy of intervention on behalf of its own interests. Demme hopes the interim government will follow through on its promise to look into the murder, but he's also aware of the writing on the wall. "[Gerard] Latortue's brief tenure has already seen several notorious criminals get cleared of charges, including potential suspects with the case, and he's referred to several of these men as 'freedom fighters.' Plus, let's face it: the U.S. still views Haiti as a potential source for cheap labor, so I'm not sure the kind of 'interest' they've had in past Haitian political regimes is just going to go away."

What the filmmaker is sure about is that Dominique won't be forgotten anytime soon. "It's been such a cathartic, rewarding experience for so many of us to share Jean's story. This film has been a huge repository for the affection that Michèle, myself, and many others feel for him. His wife's speech at the end, when Radio Haiti first goes back on the air after his passing, says it all: 'Jean still lives.' This, hopefully, will make him live a little longer."

'The Agronomist' opens Fri/30 in Bay Area theaters. See Movie Clock, in Film listings, for show times.