SPECIAL NEW Release
LOUVRI POU MWEN, which means "Open for Me" in Haitian Creole, is a short film that tells the intimate stories of two young women from neighborhoods at conflict in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the enduring plight for peace despite their own physical and mental traumas.
“If I don’t make an effort to be an agent of peace in my community, people won’t see the importance of peace... Even the guys in the armed gangs see us as light for the neighborhood.”
Jess DiPierro Obert
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Jess DiPierro Obert is an award-winning investigative visual journalist, producer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. With a focus on solutions-based storytelling, Jess works around the globe for international nonprofits and major media outlets. Jess completed an undergraduate degree in journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. Following a six-month internship at The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jess decided to move to Haiti. She spent the next eight years reporting in Port-au-Prince.
From 2018 to 2020, Jess led a series of workshops for Girls Voices, a nonprofit organization that empowers young girls globally to develop their media storytelling skills. In 2020, she received a Still I Rise Films Visual Arts Grant to work on Louvri Pou Mwen in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Her film premiered at FESPACO in Burkina Faso in March 2023. Jess’ work has been exhibited at Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie (France, 2022) and has received a Radio Television Digital News Association Murrow award (Univision, 2022.)