North Miami Beach native debuts Haitian film at Tribeca Film Fest
Filmmaker Elisee Junior St. Preux’s oldest sister left home and never came back.
“We have no idea where she is today,” he said. “She just stopped communicating with us.”
The family conflict was the inspiration for the North Miami Beach native’s feature-length film, “The Tropic Sun and His Eyes,” which debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival next month. The film will screen an official selection in the International Narrative Competition during the festival, which runs June 3-14 in New York.
The story is a reimagining of his mother’s complicated relationship with his oldest sister, who left home 12 years ago and has had no interaction with the family since, he said. During conversations with his two other sisters, St. Preux said they both said if she tried to show up to either of their parents’ funerals they would kick her out.
“I was interested in what that would look like because I was like, “You guys are not going to kick her out,’” he said.
The film, which was shot entirely in Cap‑Haïtien, Haiti, presents the same kind of family tension, with an estranged son who returns home to see his aging father. The son, Ruben, meets a homeless boy who wants to have his own family while on his journey.
Journey to film
St. Preux was born into a musical family: his father was a choir director, and he played in the band in high school and college.
After dabbling in musical theater at Florida Atlantic University, film eventually became his calling. He made his first short film after graduating in 2018 and threw himself into learning about screenwriting and directing, reading books and listening to podcasts about the craft.
“I just became self-taught, but being musically inclined allowed me to kind of slip into acting and writing and directing a little bit more easier,” he said.
St. Preux started a production company called SOIL Pictures in 2017 and has been busy since. He was a Netflix “Created By” Fellow where he had a script development deal to develop an original film. He was a Sundance Ignite Finalist, an HBO Short Film Award recipient at the American Black Film Festival. He also was an NAACP Image Awards nominee in the Outstanding Short Film (Live Action) category for his film “Aurinko in Adagio,” a coming-of-age film about a child musical prodigy. St. Preux has also been a documentary filmmaker for South Fulton Arts in Atlanta, and managing director with the Trilith Institute, a Georgia nonprofit that develops storytellers.
It’s a journey that has led St. Preux to the Tribeca Film Festival with a film that is already selling out its screenings. When St. Preux got the email his film was selected, he said he froze and was in disbelief.
“They said they understand with everything going on with Haiti right now, this film is extremely refreshing, and it is a new narrative and new perspective, and we want to champion the film, and that blew my mind,” he said.
Capturing a different Haiti
The movie is a departure from the typical narrative of surrounding Haiti’s reality, an island facing gang wars with residents constantly under siege and limited resources.
St. Preux said creating a story that didn’t focus solely on the turmoil on the island was intentional. “I needed to also depict Haiti differently than what is going on in the media because I’m not interested in what they’re trying to show,” he said. “I wanted to show another side.”
The movie does, however, show how the northern part of Haiti is contending with a growing homeless youth population, often referred to as “street children.” “I was just very taken aback by it,” St. Preux said. “I was like, this is a topic that nobody talks about, and the way I digest the human experience and then put it into my art, I wonder what these boys want, and if it’s family, then what does that look like?”
The movie has been at least four years in the making with a mostly Haitian crew. The film has star-level executive producing talent in singer-actress Naturi Naughton, who is married to entertainment mogul Xavier “Two” Lewis.
“We had a discussion about that, and them living in New York and having some Caribbean influence in their family, it just resonated with them,” he said, adding he hopes to get distribution for the film during the festival.
The premiere will be the first time his family sees the movie, so St. Preux isn’t sure what their reaction will be, but he thinks it will be more of shock and likely a warm embrace. “I do think disassociating with [his oldest sister] and kind of making her like a Lord Voldermort, like an evil name to be said and things – I don’t think that’s the way to go about it, but I get where the trauma comes from,” he said.
He hopes the film gives the viewers a chance to reflect on the importance of family, the one you are born with and the one you build along the way, like Ruben and the young boy.
“They’re not going to let anything come in their way of being a happy person and loving on people and loving on themselves,” he said. “Things are still going to happen, so it is really a call out to the world to give yourself grace, give other people grace. Nobody has the answers, nobody is perfect.”
