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Travelling to Haiti with gear


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Hello Friends,

Just booked a job for next week going to haiti, shooting a doc on some Companies and US politicians and their relief/development work. The EP and DP have been down there 4 of 5 times in the past year shooting parts of the film, though this will be the first time they have used a Sound Mixer--due to the high profile of the politicians involved in this particular shoot, they can't afford to have any audio-atrocities this time around.

When I inquired to the producer about adding my kit to their Carnet, he seemed confused, and after I explained what a Carnet was, he said that thus far they have traveled without one. This sounded very fishy to me, so I did a little research on the "Merchandise Passport" website, and much to my surprise, Haiti was not listed on the roster of ATA Carnet compliant countries.

So I'm wondering if any of you have experiences travelling with your professional equipment to Haiti. Anything I should know?

Thanks in advance!

e.

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I go to Haiti about ten times a year, the company I go with uses their own kit, but I carry it, and we have never had a carnet, you will have no problem getting into Haiti with the gear, it will only be when you land back into the united states. I have only had an issue once or twice, and they just warned us. and on those trips we were trying to come through customs with 20+ pelican cases. Just Keep your kit looking low key and you will be fine. obviously a Carnet is the smarter route, but I never really pushed for it since it was their gear and they specifically didn't want to do it. Bring sun screen and hand santi. Im headed back down around March 10. maybe we will run into each other

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There is so little government infrastructure in Haiti, you barely need a passport to get into the country. You won't have any problem with gear...other than the constant threat that if you are not holding onto, sitting on it, have it at your side, it could disappear. I would not leave anything in my hotel room when you are out shooting...and take all the expendables you think you will need. You can't get anything there. Just be sure to register with US Customs before you go...while they like a carnet cuz it is easier for them, as long as it is registered it won't be a big deal. Just plan on a delay when arriving back in the US! Get out of Port-au-Prince and it is a very lovely country, albeit extremely poor.

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All great advice.

I was there last year. Great country but extremely poor. Not a day goes by that I don't think about Haiti.

I had no trouble getting my gear in or out. I did not have a carnet.

They airport is wild. Hard to describe. You will be attacked by people wanting to carry your luggage to your vehicle.

I hope you enjoy the country as much as I did :)

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Little update:

Returned yesterday from our trip, and It was apretty amazing experience. Port Au Prince was insane, and completely indescribable--simply awesome. We drove around in a rented Diesel Toyota Land Cruiser (nearly brand new, despite looking like it was from 1985), which saved our asses time and again, as the roads fhere are horrible, both inside the cities and especially in the countryside.

Back to the original post, we ended up printing up a oist of our equipment serial numbers and values and bringing it down to the customs office a couple hours before the flight. They had us fill out a small form to register that we were taking our gear out of the country and would be returning with all of it, they stamped it, and we were on our way. All of you were right about the PAP airport. Arrival there was as if we were getting off a large bus, with all of the plane's baggage place in a huge pile for the passengers to wade through, with barely a glance from customs. However I find myself haunted by our return flight experience, with 5-10 "redcaps" fighting over us to "help" us get our bags through the 4 different security x-ray points. There was no sign of any representative of the airline (American) at all until check in, when the Agent refused to give us the media rate despite having receipts for receiving such a rate from our outbound flight, because as a group of freelancers, we had no "press card" from a major media agency. Eventually after 40 minutes of haggling, our producer got her down to just $70 USD above what we paid at JFK.

When we arrived at JFK, customs tried to give us a hard time about our cart full of gear, so it was a good thing we had the stamped form to show them. After they looked at a couple of our items to verify everything was accurate we were on our way home.

E.

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