Patricia Benoit (born Haiti) is a Haitian-American filmmaker. In 2012, she was critically acclaimed for her directorial venture on '' Stones in the Sun'' which was later screened at the 2012

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

where she won "Best New Narrative Director".

Biography

Patricia Benoit was born in Haiti and her family was forced into exile under the Duvalier dictatorship and moved to France before moving to the US. She grew and raised up in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

Career

In the 1990s, she became a filmmaker in New York. She worked with a Haitian-American novelist

Edwidge Danticat Edwidge Danticat (; born January 19, 1969) is a Haitian-American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, ''Breath, Eyes, Memory'', was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written or ...

and Jonathan Demme, on projects on

Haitian art Haitian art is a complex tradition, reflecting African roots with strong Indigenous, American and European aesthetic and religious influences. It is an important representation of Haitian culture and history. Many artists cluster in "schools" o ...

and documentaries about Haïti. Patricia Benoit directed a short film titled ''Fern's Heart of Darkness'' which appeared as one of the ten such short stories combined to produce a television film '' Subway Stories'' in 1997. Her documentary film titled ''Courage and Pain'' which portrayed about the victims of political torture in Haiti was shown at the Walter Reade Theatre in Newcastle York which was directed by her in 1996. She also directed an award-winning documentary titled ''Tonbe/Leve'' which depicts the struggle for democracy in Haiti after the end of Duvalier's 30 year rule. She rose to prominence as a film director where she was critically acclaimed for her directorial venture of '' Stones in the Sun'', a film she also wrote, based on the lives of Haitian people was released in 2012 accumulating positive reviews from the audience. The film ''Stones in the Sun'' received the best narrative feature film award at the Los Angeles Pan American Film Festival and also received the

Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Diaspora Feature The Africa Movie Academy Award The Africa Movie Academy Awards, popularly known as AMAA and The AMA Awards, is presented annually to recognize excellence among professionals working in, or non-African professionals who have contributed to, the Af ...

in 2013. At the

, Patricia Benoit herself also received the special award for best debut narrative director. Her short story "The Red Dress" was published in Edwidge Danticat's 2003 anthology '' The Butterfly's Way'', subtitled ''Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit, Patricia Date of birth missing (living people) Living people American film producers 21st-century American screenwriters American women screenwriters American television directors American women television directors American documentary film directors Haitian film directors American people of Haitian descent People from Port-au-Prince American women documentary filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women