{"id":210021,"date":"2025-04-01T13:38:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=210021"},"modified":"2025-04-01T13:40:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:40:25","slug":"blog-the-camera-is-all-we-have-the-making-of-tito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-the-camera-is-all-we-have-the-making-of-tito","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe camera is all we have\u201d: the making of Tito"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unlawfully imprisoned at the age of 17, Kervens \u201cTito\u201d Jimenez escaped from the Haitian National Penitentiary following the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince. He was re-arrested in 2011, but during his period out of prison came into contact with a non-profit organisation which US producer Corbin Stone had been working for.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stone had arrived in Haiti in 2011 with some modest filmmaking ambitions,\u00a0 but increasingly astounded by the condition of the legal system, knew there was scope for a larger project. The filmmaker and educator Taylor McIntosh, whom he\u2019d met at a filmmaking course in Maine a few months before, was invited to assist him. Together they would work with Tito to ultimately create the Tiger Short Award-winning film that shares his name. Stone and McIntosh caught up with us to share the story of the film\u2019s origins.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe camera was inside for two or three weeks\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe had been there [in prison] for a total of five years, had never seen a judge, never had an attorney visit him,\u201d said Stone on their initial meetings with Tito. The pair would take him food and supplies and thought about making a documentary on the case, before Tito himself seized control. \u201cYou’re able to have these sort of interactions with inmates,\u201d recounts McIntosh. \u201cWe thought maybe we could film one somehow.\u201d When they decided to take a GoPro to a visit, Tito saw the camera, and without any prior discussion, snatched it and snuck it into the prison with him. \u201cI think the camera was inside for two or three weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI’ve never seen anything like it or felt anything like it\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The footage Tito collected, compiled and completed more than ten years after it was recorded, drags us into his life in prison. The images stick to his body as he surveys the prison with the undercover camera \u2013 rotating and contorting as we\u2019re immersed in his confines. The dilapidated showers, overcrowded yard, communal sleeping areas and rusted metal of the prison bars are framed against his own presence and always with a powerful streak of defiance, like when he sings to the camera in his darkened cell. \u201cI think that he somehow saw the opportunity of getting a camera as a way to let people know about his story and what was happening to him\u201d considers Stone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI’ve never seen anything like it or felt anything like it\u201d, says McIntosh. \u201cWe were just amazed that this had worked and that we got the camera safely out somehow,\u201d Although the material was gathered over a two week period, Stone and McIntosh knew and worked with Tito and his case for over four years. McIntosh made an edit of the film within months of receiving the material, which they wouldn\u2019t release for fear of worsening his situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With help from a human rights attorney, Tito\u2019s case was dismissed and he was released from prison in 2015. Later, at the age of 25, Tito was murdered by members of his community for allegedly stealing a laptop.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s primarily his film and his creation\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we travelled down and buried him, I think the film in a way was buried too\u201d, reflects McIntosh on the deep personal impact of Tito\u2019s death. Years passed where they were torn over how to deal with the material, troubled by the possibility that his images might never see the light of day. Eventually, enough time had passed that they felt able to finish the film. \u201cIt never dwindled in emotion or feeling or power. It has always felt timeless in a lot of ways.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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IFFR 2023 Tiger Short Awards ceremony at WORM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The film premiered at IFFR 2023 and won a Tiger Short Award, with the jury stating \u201cTito\u2019s rare images of capture shake one to the core.\u201d Reflecting on the prize, the filmmakers are clear on who it honours. \u201cTaylor and I view ourselves more as messengers for his story and messengers for the film that he wanted to make.\u201d The colour, the sounds and the chronology are almost all preserved in the way Tito recorded them, with some added contextualisation. The film\u2019s opening images are the very first images Tito recorded as he tried to figure out how the\u00a0 camera worked. \u201cIt\u2019s primarily his film and his creation and how he envisioned it when he shot it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tito\u2019s own words, recorded from a phone conversation, offer the most poignant reflection on the legacy of his images and the power of this work. \u201cI feel better now!\u201d he exclaims. \u201cI would like to have a picture like that so I can put it in an album. And save it. And keep it\u2026 so I can show it to my kid and teach it to him, what type of life I was living in prison, and what was happen to me, and how it was happen. The camera is all we have.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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A list with articles<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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