Haitian-Canadian filmmaker brings ‘Diaspora Power’ story to NYC 

Montreal-based documentary filmmaker Joseph Hillel will present his latest film, “Diaspora Power,” at the New York African Film Festival May 16. The 53-minute film, which aired on Radio-Canada in January, examines the wave of Haitian immigration to Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s through the stories of people in Hillel’s own family and community.

Hillel, who was born in Port-au-Prince and moved to Quebec with his parents in the early 1960s, has spent roughly two decades making documentary films. His previous work has ranged from films on architecture to features on Haitian culture, including the 2024 “Koutkekout (At All Kosts),” about a longstanding theater festival in Port-au-Prince.

“Diaspora Power” marks a departure. It is the first time Hillel has made a film centered on his own family, and he said the experience was difficult. 

“I’m someone fairly private,” he told The Haitian Times. “I thought about abandoning it several times.”

The film portrays the Haitian migration to Quebec within a specific historical moment. In the early 1960s, Quebec was undergoing its Quiet Revolution, secularizing its education and health systems, building infrastructure, hosting Expo 67 and the 1976 Olympics, and needed trained professionals it did not yet have domestically. At the same time, the installation of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti was driving an exodus of educated Haitians to cities including Montreal, New York, Miami and Paris.

Hillel’s father was among them, arriving as a psychiatrist at a time when Quebec was transitioning from church-run asylums to modern psychiatric hospitals. His mother worked as a social worker. By 1969, Hillel said, there were roughly 1,000 Haitian teachers working in Quebec schools.

“There isn’t a Quebecer who hasn’t known a Haitian teacher or a doctor,” he said.

The film also profiles Hillel’s uncle Edouard, who worked various jobs before joining the Montreal police at 30 and became the city’s first Black police officer. Hillel said he originally planned to build the film around his uncle, drawn to the parallel between an undercover agent and someone navigating a new and predominantly white society. 

Quebec immigration at the time was largely from Europe, and Hillel recalled being treated as an outsider growing up in a small village.

“My grandmother, my great-grandmother, were Black,” he said. “We were very conspicuous.”

The film also includes Dominique Anglade, described by Hillel as the first Black leader of a major provincial political party, the Liberal Party — and a cousin of his.

Hillel said he was surprised by how little his non-Haitian friends from Quebec knew about this history when he showed them early cuts. 

“I was stunned by their ignorance,” he said. “I thought it was a well-known story.”

The film’s structure shifted during editing, partly in response to a statement by Quebec’s immigration minister during a period of heightened migration from Haiti. With many Haitians in the U.S. fearing immigration enforcement and looking north, the minister said Quebec could not “accept all the world’s misery.” Hillel said the comment pushed him to lean more on the film’s group of subjects.

“It’s not a question of boasting or self-congratulation,” he said. “It’s more about basic respect for people who have been here a long time.”

The reaction among Haitian audiences has been emotional, Hillel said. At a recent Montreal screening, the theater was full and several subjects from the film attended. He said he has rarely seen that kind of response.

Hillel also noted that Haitian cinema is gaining visibility more broadly. He cited director Gessica Généus, whose film “Freda” premiered at Cannes and whose second film, shot by Hillel’s cinematographer, is set to return to Cannes this year.

“Diaspora Power” screens Saturday, May 16 at 4:30 p.m. at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem as part of the New York African Film Festival. Tickets are $7 to $15.

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