Fatal Assistance is a compelling documentary that sheds light on the avoidable harm caused by the international aid community in the rush to rebuild post-earthquake Haiti and the billions of dollars wasted in the process.
More than three years after the earthquake that ravaged already poverty-stricken Haiti, the Caribbean island still struggles to survive. Its future is marred by the systematic failure of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisation), the Haitian government and international sponsors in the aftermath of 12 January 2010.
Written and directed by Haitian filmmaker and the country’s former Culture Minister, Raoul Peck, Fatal Assistance is a passionate condemnation of the international humanitarian aid process, offering a rare insight into the intimate relationship between politics and aid.
Aided by his former position within the Haitian Government, Peck had a front-row seat as the saga unfolded, allowing him unparalleled access to some of the story’s most influential players. Fatal Assistance is the result of a two year journey which saw 500 hours of footage recorded, an incredible feat, most notable in the quality of Peck’s interviews with disillusioned aid workers, frustrated government officials and resilient Haitians who have lost their homes.
Peck paints a bleak portrait of the efforts of international NGOs and donors in Haiti, particularly Bill Clinton, co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), as opportunistic and heavily ego-driven. Most of all, the documentary is a story of relief efforts stalled by ineffective bureaucracy, bumbling mismanagement and un-kept promises.
Mistrust of the Haitian Government and a lack of confidence in community businesses and authorities saw the IHRC reject local consultation in the rebuilding process, resulting in a number of costly mistakes. It is this miscommunication that sees NGOs elect to build a new hospital in an area already equipped with one instead of building in an area in need, away from the international spotlight.
The documentary gives us heroes in the form of Priscilla Phelps, an American housing advisor, and Port-au-Prince’s Head of Sanitation, as they struggle to work around the IHRC’s red tape. This is as much a story of personal hardship as it is about the failure of the first world.
Peck’s sympathy towards the Haitian government can, at times, call the documentary’s subjectivity into question. The director does not afford his own country’s politicians, notably former Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, the same critique and condemnation as Bill Clinton, although Bellerive co-chaired the IHRC. The film’s silence on the role of Haiti’s government in the earthquake’s aftermath smacks of imbalance.
Fatal Assistance is at its most compelling when wide-angle shots of desolate, crumbling Haitian slums are contrasted with the sterile, comfortable homes of NGO directors and the country’s ruling elite.
The evocative image of a touring group of white, male American foreign donors, identically clad in freshly pressed shirts and beige slacks, walking alongside open sewage in one of Port-au-Prince’s infamous tent cities makes for confronting viewing. The film’s visual depiction of unequal wealth distribution speaks louder than statistics ever could.
