As soon as we found Alain Martin's documentary, The Forgotten Occupation, was on Tubi for streaming, we had to watch it. Unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience. By sticking to the framework of the documentary on the brutal US military occupation of Haiti as a "letter" to his late grandfather, a right-winger with pro-US views, the documentary was unable to provide a coherent overview of the US Occupation. Naturally, no documentary of about 90 minutes in length could cover everything. But the constant juggling by the narrator back and forth between the period in question, something about his grandfather, or shots of Haiti today (with commentary on the abyssmal, horrific state of the country), consumed a lot of screentime.
That said, there is much to enjoy in the film, even if one does not find Martin's grandfather to be a very compelling or interesting figure (perhaps explaining why someone who seemed to prefer authoritarian governments left Haiti in 1967 would have humanized him?). The documentary covers most of the major players, such as Smedley Butler, Russell, Dartiguenave, Charlemagne Peralte, and more. But one is also left scratching their head by the significant omissions. No Jean Price-Mars, for instance, and no mention of Jacques Roumain, Georges Sylvain or the Union Patriotique? Nothing said about Borno and Vincent and the shenanigans that preceded the final conclusion of the Occupation and its aftermath? We were hoping for a more nuanced and comprehensive documentary that could cover some of these well-known figures involved in this. Instead, due to time constraints, much of it is alluded to very briefly or obliquely. This does a disservice to the types of insights and research that could have covered the Marchaterre Massacre, the activism and journalism of Jolibois fils, or the contradictions and ramifications of indigénisme in Haiti. With recent research on figures like Jolibois fils or the experiences of Haitian migrant workers in Cuba and the DR during this period, a lot was not included in the film.
Despite these aforementioned problems, we did enjoy the documentary. There are some especially striking photographs, videos, and audio segments, including key US figures during the Occupation. Peralte and the cacos were covered as well as some of the abuses of the US Occupation. And to some extent, the documentary did succeed in establishing how this period from 1915-1934 did set Haiti on a path for more centralized, authoritarian regimes that followed. One just wishes there was a documentary focusing just on the Occupation itself, with some analysis of what followed near the end to convince a popular audience why it is relevant today. By muddling the narrative and running out of time, a lot of essential developments during the Occupation were lost.
