Konpa a Soulful Haitian dance world premiering at Tribeca Film Festival

Press Release

Los Angeles, CA (May, 9th 2023). Director Al’Ikens Plancher’s KONPA is a beautiful story that takes you deep into Haitian culture. Through Konpa, a dance music and modern méringue in Haiti. We follow Jean (Edson Jean) into a small family-owned restaurant. Where he is stymied as he cannot speak Haitian Creole. His crush Minouche (Nagela Lukacs) enters from the back and leads him to the dance floor where she teaches him the beauty of Konpa and Haitian Creole.

Haitian Writer and director Al’Ikens Plancher wrote this story as a love letter to his culture. The live-action short film is now in selection for the world premiere in competition at the prestigious OSCAR-qualifying Tribeca Festival this June. KONPA is a selection from 8,096 submissions, with its four screenings selling out in just thirty minutes.

Logline: A young Haitian-American learns how to dance Konpa to impress his crush.

Writer, director, and producer Al’Ikens Plancher is a writer-director from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Having started high school at the age of 12, and college at 16, Plancher had multiple career options at his disposal but chose to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a filmmaker. Throughout the years, he’s worked various positions in television and film, using his income to produce and direct his own projects, resulting in winning an HBO Best Short Film award, and having a world premiere in competition at Tribeca Festival.

Actor and producer Edson Jean is a Haitian American Actor, Writer and Director. Whose debut feature film LUDI premiered at SXSW (2021) and is set to release in 2023. Jean is a Gotham Narrative Lab alum and served as a consultant with Issa Rae’s Rap Sh!t on HBO Max. He’s currently in post-production for his second feature film which is from an inspiration of true events that took place on the Miami Causeway in 2012.

Producer Timothy Mark Davis is an independent film and theatre maker based in South Florida. Most recently he produced the short films KONPA, which will play in competition at the 2023 Tribeca Festival, and LA VIE which premiered at the 2023 Miami Film Festival. 

The stunning cinematography that captures the soul of the film was created by Juan Camilo Barriga.

Additional Details
This soul-touching film will premiere on Sunday, June 11th at 12:15 pm followed by screenings on Wednesday, June 14th at 5:45 pm and Saturday, June 17th at 3:15 pm.

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