The Radical Experiment of Haiti

A Haitian-American filmmaker retraces her ancestral link to a 19th-century abolitionist who led free African Americans to Haiti in a radical pursuit of liberty, only to confront what the nation’s historic struggles and current collapse reveal about identity, memory, freedom, and the cost of democracy.

The Radical Experiment of Haiti is a feature documentary that follows Haitian-American filmmaker Natalie Holly Purviance as she retraces the journey of her ancestor, Bishop James Theodore Holly, a 19th-century abolitionist who led over 100 free African Americans to Haiti in 1861, believing true democracy could not exist within a nation built on their exclusion. After moving to Haiti herself in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, Natalie witnesses the country’s current collapse, marked by gang violence, foreign exploitation, and democratic erosion, and begins to reckon with the radical legacy she’s inherited. Told through dual narration, poetic voiceover, archival texts, and immersive soundscapes, the film explores how Haiti, the first Black republic to abolish slavery and declare universal freedom, became a target of global punishment for taking democracy seriously. As authoritarianism rises worldwide, The Radical Experiment of Haiti becomes both a mirror and a warning, asking: What happens when a Black nation dares to live the ideals others only preach? And what does it cost to keep believing in freedom when the world conspires against it?

Director | Natalie Holly Purviance

Producer | Je-Anne Berry

Editor | Victoria Bostic