Experiencing Interruptions?

Chante Manman Mwen (My Mother's Song)

How can we combat the negative stigma surrounding Haitian Americans? Let's focus on one woman's story. Haitian American immigrant, Raymonde Jacquet, only has one regret. At 70 years old she fulfills her childhood dream with help from her daughter.

  • Fedna Jacquet
    Director
    Murika (Brooklyn Film Festival, HollyShorts, Urban Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and many others); Black Therapist: We Need Help (Brown Media Group Film Festival, The Breath Project); Still I Rise Documentary Film Fellowship; Inheritance (Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens Finalist, Urbanworld Film Festival); National Black Theatre Fellow; The Fire This Time; Huntington Theatre Fellow; NYFA Screenwriting Fellow
  • Fedna Jacquet
    Writer
    Murika (Brooklyn Film Festival, HollyShorts, Urban Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and many others); Black Therapist: We Need Help (Brown Media Group Film Festival, The Breath Project); Still I Rise Documentary Film Fellowship; Inheritance (Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens Finalist, Urbanworld Film Festival); National Black Theatre Fellow; The Fire This Time; Huntington Theatre Fellow; NYFA Screenwriting Fellow
  • Fedna Jacquet
    Producer
    Murika (Brooklyn Film Festival, HollyShorts, Urban Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and many others); Black Therapist: We Need Help (Brown Media Group Film Festival, The Breath Project); Still I Rise Documentary Film Fellowship; Inheritance (Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens Finalist, Urbanworld Film Festival); National Black Theatre Fellow; The Fire This Time; Huntington Theatre Fellow; NYFA Screenwriting Fellow
  • Marchant Davis
    Producer
    Murika (Brooklyn Film Festival, HollyShorts, Urban Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and many others)
  • Raymonde Jacquet
    Key Cast
    "herself"
  • Fedna Jacquet
    Key Cast
    "herself"
    Recurring: (FBI: Most Wanted, City On a Hill) Other Credits: (A Mouthful of Air, The Equalizer, New Amsterdam, Elementary, The Blacklist, Madam Secretary, Rogue Hostage, Law & Order SVU and many others)
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Chante Manman Mwen (My Mother's Song)
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Documentary Short (Female Subject, Female Director, black woman, haitian, immigrant, woman of color, haiti, mother, daughter, documentary, short, female subject, documentary short, black, Haitian American, Boston
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 25 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 7, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, French, Haitian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Fedna Jacquet

Full-time director/writer/actor Fedna Jacquet was born in Boston to Haitian parents. She is a 2021-2022 Inaugural Still I Rise Documentary Fellow, a 2020-2022 National Black Theatre Playwright in Residence, 2019-2022 Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting. Written work for the screen includes Isaiah (ABFF/TVOne Screenplay Competition Finalist, Homebase (Juilliard/NYU Showcase)), Inheritance (2020 Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens Finalist, 2021 Urbanworld Film Festival), Circus (2020 HollyShorts Quarterfinalist) and Going Home. She is also currently working on two pilots: Model Minority (a half hour dramedy centered around an Asian American male lead) and Pefeksyon (a half hour comedy centered around a Haitian American family). Written plays include Black Mother Lost Daughter (Commissioned by National Black Theatre), Pefeksyon (Playwright’s Realm Finalist, DVRF Finalist, Studio Tisch), Inheritance (Classical Theatre of Harlem Playwright's Playground, Studio Tisch), Civic Duty (Commissioned by Suny Purchase), Gurlfriend (The Fire This Time Festival) and Heroes (Developed as a Huntington Fellow). Fedna is currently recurring as an actor on City On A Hill (Showtime) and FBI: Most Wanted (CBS) She has appeared on The Equalizer, New Amsterdam, Law & Order SVU, The Blacklist, and many others.

BA: Brown University MFA: NYU/Tisch Grad Acting. Her short film Murika premiered at the 2021 Brooklyn Film Festival, and she has just wrapped post production with Chante Maman Mwen (My Mother’s Song) which is supported by Still I Rise Films.

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Director Statement

My artistic motto is based on a Haitian proverb: woch nan dlo pa kinnen doule woch nan soley. In English this translates to: rocks in the water know not the pain of rocks in the sun.

The illuminating wisdom in this Haitian proverb provides strong roots of direction and vision in all that I do. In essence, my work focuses on providing the experience for the rock in the water to see what life is like in the sun and vice versa. By building bridges into the other’s experience, a foundation can exist for conversation, empathy, and so much more.

Let’s infuse traditional Haitian storytelling with a contemporary voice to highlight very modern ideas of home, trauma, and love. I find audiences are hungry for a truly nuanced view of what it means to be from the diaspora. Our stories are usually plagued with inauthenticity or worse: pity. It is time to offer a wider audience the gift of fully immersing themselves into the life of a Haitian woman without any guards up. I want audiences to see her love, laugh, destroy, and create. See HER, a fully realized protagonist of color, not veiled in caricature, nor in the passenger's seat to someone else's story. Let’s create a story where black people prevail despite circumstances of strife; let’s create a story where they shatter the stereotypes and thrive.