Emily McMehen: Max Beauvoir

An interview with filmmaker and researcher Emily McMehen, about her dicussions with the legendary Haitian Supreme Servitur (the highest title of Voudou priesthood) Max Beauvoir, who some call the leading contemporary voice on Haitian vodou before his death in late 2015. During the conversation, McMehen describes Beauvoir's commanding presence, her reasons for meeting with him, and imparts wisdom gleaned from their discussions. Featuring excerpts of Beauvoir himself. McMehen has been screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Oberhausen, the ÉCU, and Sheffield Doc fest, as well as at various festivals and exhibitions worldwide. She has published writing and photography in Electric Sheep Magazine, Dazed and Confused, Intersection, and Another Magazine, and has exhibited in Berlin, Ljubljana, London, Tel Aviv and at the Taipei Biennale. McMehen also exhibits large scale textile works in New York, Paris, and throughout the UK, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London. McMehen met Max Beauvoir while researching Haitian Vodou for what became a collaborative experimental film project involving four Vodou communities in Haiti, shot over a three year period between 2010 and 2013. Max Beauvoir, and his daughter Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique were exceptionally generous with their time and support throughout the film's production, and the recordings offered here are a selection of excerpts from discussions with Max at Peristyle Mariani in Carrefour, Port-au-Prince. Achante: A Portrait of Haitian Vodou is a film by Emily McMehen and Geoffrey Sautner, with an original soundtrack by Nick Zammuto, and a collaboration between Sean Roubens Jean Sacra, Edouard and Peristyle Sa Na Jwinn Bon Houng'an in Peguyville, Dodo and Peristyle Dodo in Saut D'eau, and Jean Andrenord Lundi of Temple Chango Chagwa in Jacmel. If you would like to see or screen the film, please contact Emily at emily@mazibel.com.

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