Director: Steven Baboun

Film: RANTRE, “to enter” in Haitian Creole, is a video performance of site-specific interventions in which the artist returns to sites of trauma in their homeland of Haiti (Their grandmother’s house where they could not express their queerness; a soccer field where boys proclaimed that “masisi’s” or fags could not play soccer; and several landscapes around Port-au-Prince which were sites of contemplation and self-doubt about their Haitian identity). The artist goes back to these spaces as a way to reclaim every identity that has been rejected or deemed invisible by Haitian society such as queerness, being of multicultural identities, being mixed race, or being of a different religion other than Catholicism (i.e. Vodou). RANTRE is not about seeking acceptance from Haitian society but it is simply the existence of the reject and the ownership of the rejected.

Bio: Steven Baboun is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and creative director from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, based in New York City. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Arts and a minor in Education Studies from American University, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Parsons School of Design. Baboun works in photography, video, performance, textile + multimedia installation, and design. Currently, Baboun is the founder and creative director of Studio Baboun, a creative house based in Brooklyn, New York.

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