Few films about music work for those who are not fans of

Few films about music work for those who are not fans of that particular style, but this is a marvellous exception. “Well, suddenly you have the poorest country in the western world raising the minimum wage from $1.50 a day to $3 a day. So this guy is setting a horrendous example to the rest of the Caribbean. We can’t let him do this or everyone will want to do the same…”Demme catches himself for a moment in mid-flow and says: “I feel like I’m echoing Dominique.” He seems perturbed by the insight, then rather pleased.

“What the US wants is a docile, cheap labour pool,” Demme says. At the same time, he is filled with rage at the dishonest, anti-democratic role played by the United States in Haiti down the years.He argues passionately that the instinctive antipathy of the US government towards Aristide was the result of nervousness at the thought of an impoverished Caribbean nation daring to talk about empowering its working class. Demme, though, does not share that pessimism, or not entirely. “There’s a whole new generation of courageous people ready to push the country in the right direction,” he says.

In the Artibonite, Demme discovered an extraordinary depth of affection for Dominique. His claims to being a man of the people were genuine.It is tempting to conclude – both from watching The Agronomist and from seeing Haiti once again in the thrall of paramilitary gunmen with links to the CIA and the international drugs trade – that the good guys are all gone, that the figureheads of the post-Duvalier period have either been corrupted or have proved ineffectual, and that nobody is left to defend the interests of ordinary Haitians. This is a guy who curls up reading Faust to the sound of Gregorian chants on the stereo. Yeah, he’s a real shit-kicker.” But the Dominique of the years in exile was not the same as Dominique in his element. “I don’t want to do this any more.”Dominique suggested that the crew go instead to the main agricultural region of Haiti, the Artibonite, “to see who I really am” Demme remembers thinking, “Yeah, right.

Together, he and Demme discussed doing a series of lectures on the history of Haitian cinema. But the relationship changed somewhat after Dominique returned home in 1994 They were to remain good friends, but not collaborators. “The guys with the camera are giving me a big pain in the ass,” Demme remembers him saying. “We became very good friends, and my enthusiasm for him was contagious,” Demme says.