A group of artists and performers gathers on the roof of a compound overlooking Port-au-Prince. The sunset sky illuminates the proceedings. A lady in a blue dress covered in flower designs sings in Kreyòl. People dressed in outfits representing spiritual entities stand at attention. The reasons for this ceremony, as documented by Haitian Canadian filmmaker Joseph Hillel, are never directly explained to the audience. But no elaboration is needed. Especially not for those of us who are intimately aware of what we are watching and its significance. Hillel is giving the audience a glimpse of a performance steeped in the Vodou and storytelling traditions of the nation; a prayer to the ancestors and the spirits. The subtitles label it as a funeral song.

The performance appears in the second half of Koutkekout or At All Kosts, Hillel’s 2025 documentary. What appears to be a ceremony is, in actuality, a ...