Haiti National Soccer Team - Grenadye Alaso

The dream was to honor Haiti’s past and celebrate their present. We made this film as a tribute to Haiti, to capture the spirit of the country, the pride of its people, and the extraordinary achievement of this team returning to the world stage.

Haitians carry our history with pride. These players represent the unity it takes for a people to heal. In 1974, there was a young child who walked onto that World Cup pitch in a Haiti kit, baton in hand, like he belonged there. We recreated that moment 51 years later. The baton passing from that child to ours, that’s the story we were called to tell. And underneath it all, Konpa. The heartbeat of Haiti.

We were standing on a training pitch in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Overcast sky, wind, and roughly an hour with the players before they had to return to preparing for the World Cup. Their schedule came first, and rightfully so. That constraint changed everything about how we shot. There was no room for hesitation. Every frame had to matter.

We were feeling the weight of that day. Our DP, our steadicam operator, our producers, so many of us are Haitian. We shot across multiple formats, including 16mm, reflecting the Haitian diaspora and the many textures of who we are and where we come from.