@article{1355947,
      note = {Originally released as DVD.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1355947},
      title = {Frontiers Haiti and the Dominican Republic / [electronic  resource] :},
      publisher = {Filmakers Library,},
      abstract = {On the island of Hispaniola two worlds face each other:  Haiti to the west, the Dominican Republic to the east.  There is poverty, corruption and drug-trafficking in Haiti,  while an economic boom linked to tourism has occurred in  the Dominican Republic. The border is plagued by daily  violence and tension. Formerly a thriving, prosperous  French possession inhabited by descendants of African  slaves, Haiti is now one of the poorest countries in the  world. The film looks at the inhabitants of one Haitian  town close to the border, Ouanaminthe, which is suffering  severe economic, social, political and health crises. In  order to survive, many cross the border to sell their wares  in the markets, paying a stiff border tax and undergoing  humiliating treatment from the soldiers and the Dominican  townspeople. The Dominican Republic was formerly a Spanish  colony that made its fortune from sugar cane; it owes its  recent prosperity to the tourist industry. Unemployment is  decreasing, life expectancy is increasing and the  inequalities with Haiti are widening. 25,000 Dominican  soldiers guard the tense border along the Massacre River,  named for the terrible massacres of Haitians that occurred  in 1937, ordered by the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Cesca  Laugeste, a Haitian shoemaker and saxophone teacher,  remembers the massacres and is too fearful to cross the  border. We meet Alta Gracia Sanchez, a Dominican woman who  organized a lucrative women s association that buys black  market clothes in Haiti and resells them legally in Santo  Domingo. She crosses the border into Haiti legally and with  no problems every day. Juan Carlos, a Dominican mechanic,  earns his living on both sides of the border but he s  always afraid when he crosses into Haiti. As long as the  Haitian economy is devastated, the tension-filled border  situation will continue.},
      recid = {1355947},
      pages = {1 online resource (27 min.)},
      address = {New York, NY :},
      year = {2004},
}