An agronomist is a specialist in the branch of economics dealing with the distribution, management and productivity of land. Jean Dominique studied agronomics, but left it behind to become one of Haiti's most prominent journalists, a hugely influential man of the people who used his radio station as a platform to condemn a series of dictators and defend press freedom. Murdered in April 2000, his legacy lives on The Agronomist, a moving documentary directed by his long-time friend, Jonathan Demme.
"I have no other weapon but my journalism," Dominique told Silence Of The Lambs director Demme during one of his many involuntary exiles in New York. But this pipe-puffing intellectual and activist made that weapon count in a largely illiterate nation where the spoken word is supreme.
"MORE THAN A TRIBUTE TO AN INSPIRATION"
When Dominique bought Radio Haiti Inter for a song in 1961, his masterstroke was to broadcast in native Kreyol as well as the French used by the country's educated elite. He quickly became a national hero, illustrated here by some incredible footage of the 60,000 people who gathered at Port-au-Prince airport to welcome him home in 1986.
But his popularity made him a threat to Haiti's corrupt establishment. On his first day back on the air, the station walls were shot at, and 14 years later he was gunned down as he arrived for work. But in an emotional coda Demme shows Dominique's widow, Michele Montas, returning to the studio one week after her husband's funeral to continue his life's work - an act of courage that has since seen her face her own share of violent intimidation.
However, The Agronomist is more than a tribute to one inspirational man. With Haiti now entering the next stage in its tragic history, it's also a timely look at the roots and causes of its ongoing instability.
In French with English subtitles.
The Agronomist (2004)
