Adopted as a child, filmmaker travels back to Haitian birthplace in Through Her Eyes (À travers tes yeux), February 11

Visions Ouest and Alliance Française present poignant documentary about a woman retracing her roots to a vibrant but deeply troubled country

Visions Ouest presents Through Her Eyes at Alliance Française Vancouver on February 11 at 7 pm

TINY FABIOLA PIERRE MONTY arrived in Montreal in July 2000 at just three years old, and in what we can see from the home movies here, the Haitian adoptee was surrounded by warmth and love as she grew up.

Now, the deeply moving documentary Through Her Eyes (À travers tes yeux) tells the story of her quest to answer a question that drives her as she grows into adulthood: what would have happened to me if I’d stayed in Haiti? What’s different about this documentary is that her mother, Quebec filmmaker Brigitte Poupart, puts the camera in Fabiola’s hands, allowing viewers to discover her vibrant yet troubled home country as she makes an emotional reunion with it.

It’s also an emotional trip for Poupart, who had taken a perilous journey to Port-au-Prince two decades earlier to bring Fabiola to Canada. And so it is that the film intertwines multilayered stories of Fabiola, her adoptive mother and sister, as well as that of the biological mother who was forced to give her up—not to mention the narrative of a country that has faced a litany of violence and poverty. Will Fabiola find her biological family? You’ll have to watch to find out—but in the meantime Fabiola talks to some of the young Haitians who stuck it out.

Marking Black History Month, the film features visually vibrant, often panoramic footage of Haiti, from its pink and white shanties scattered over green hills to chaotic dirt roadways to makeshift markets and playgrounds, all backed by the rhythmic music indigenous to Haiti. “I observed the country,” Fabiola narrates, “knowing it had once been mine,” adding to the bittersweet quality of seeing it “through her eyes”.

With insights from the psychologist who tries to help her work through the journey, Through Her Eyes ends up being a deeply moving look at displacement, family, and the complexities of international adoption— all of it wrapped in love and care. In other words, try to catch this rare screening on its single-night showing, February 11 at Alliance Française Vancouver.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is a Webster Award–winning arts journalist who has spent more than three decades immersed in Vancouver’s performing arts, film, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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