Movies Similar to La Belle Vie: The Good Life

1804: The Hidden History of Haiti(2017)

1804 is a feature length documentary film about the untold history of the Haitian revolution

Lydia Bailey(1952)

A young Boston lawyer, Albron Hamlin, goes to Haiti in 1802 to find Lydia Bailey, whose estate he must settle. The island is war-torn in the strife between Toussaing L'Overture, the black president, and the French who are trying to retake possession of the country. Hamlin finds Lydia and, against the background of war and rebellion, they fall in love while helping the Haitians against the French.

Le Fils(2024)

Disaster Capitalism(2018)

A documentary that reveals the underbelly of the global aid and investment industry. It's a complex web of interests that span the earth from powerful nations and multinational corporations to tribal and village leaders. This documentary offers unique insights into a multi-billion dollar world by investigating how aid dollars are spent.

Humain en mission(2014)

Arcade Fire - The Reflektor Tapes(2015)

Arcade Fire’s first feature film is called 'The Reflektor Tapes'. The project is “a unique cinematic experience, meeting at the crossroads of documentary, music, art and personal history.”

Bending the Arc(2017)

About the extraordinary doctors and activists—including Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl—whose work 30 years ago to save lives in a rural Haitian village grew into a global battle in the halls of power for the right to health for all.

Sweet Micky for President(2015)

Music and politics collide when international music star, Pras Michel of the Fugees, returns to his homeland of Haiti following the devastating earthquake of 2010 to mobilize a presidential campaign for Haiti's most controversial musician: Michel Martelly aka Sweet Micky. The politically inexperienced pair set out against a corrupted government, civil unrest, and a fixed election. When Pras's former bandmate, superstar Wyclef Jean, also enters the presidential race, their chances seem further doomed. But with the help of a few friends, including Ben Stiller and former president Bill Clinton, they never give up on their honest dream of changing the course of Haiti's future forever

Ghosts of Cité Soleil(2006)

In the slum of Cité Soleil, President Aristide's most loyal supporters were ruling as kings. The five major gang leaders were controlling heavily armed young men; the Chiméres. The Secret army of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "Ghosts of Cité Soleil" is a film about Billy and Haitian 2pac. Two brothers. Gang Leaders of the Chiméres.

Two Four Six(2017)

Set mainly in present day Dallas, Texas and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, this film features three main characters at three different stages of the same process. Supported by a nonprofit, these extremely tall teenagers come to the United States from Haiti using basketball as means to get an education and help their own country change.

Refuge(2023)

John is a Haitian migrant who fled his country due to political instability and death threats. After a long journey, he managed to be recognized as a refugee in Mexico, allowing him to start a new chapter in a new land. However, for John, this story is far from over as his wife and baby remain stranded in Chile. Every day, John takes steps towards family reunification, longing to embrace those who are his true refuge.

Between Hamburg and Haiti(1940)

A successful German overseas merchant with a plantation in Haiti is looking for a suitable wife in Hamburg and comes across a barmaid from the Reeperbahn with an illegitimate child. He wants to marry her, but she does not follow him out of nobility. In search of her, he finds her in Mexico as the secretary of his former lover, a writer.

Baseball in the Time of Cholera(2012)

As a Cholera epidemic rages in Haiti, the United Nations denies it is responsible for introducing the disease despite glaring evidence suggesting Nepalese peacekeepers are to blame. Baseball in the Time of Cholera is the story of a young Haitian boy who plays in Haiti's first little league baseball team and the Haitian Lawyer seeking justice against the UN. As the epidemic spreads, the two stories intersect in the struggle for survival and justice.

The Soul of Bossales(2023)

The Soul of Bossales is an immersion in the heart of popular Haitian culture whose spirituality and creativity have been forged by a surge of freedom and identity affirmation. Foukifoura, Édris, Charlotte or Ramoncite, “Bossales” characters with committed artistic and political acts, give us the gripping story of a very harsh reality: material and health precariousness, political violence, neo-colonialism.

Liberty in a Soup(2015)

Every New Year, and in celebration of their Independence, Haitian families gather together to feast in honor of a line of ancestors that fought for their freedom. The centerpiece of the festivity is the joumou soup—a traditional soup dating back centuries ago. The joumou soup is a concretization of war and victory, oppression and emancipation, and the deeply rooted celebratory traditions of the Haitian culture.

The Pierced Heart & the Machete(2012)

The Pierced Heart & The Machete is a vivid, unflinching exploration of two annual Vodou pilgrimages in Haiti. The first is for Èzili Danto, goddess of love, art and passion; worshipers from all over the world descend on the southwestern town of Ville-Bonheur to bathe in the sacred waterfall where Dantò resides. The second pilgrimage is for Dantòs' husband Ogoun, god of war, iron and healing. It takes place at the end of July in the northern town of Plaine du Nord, where practitioners bathe in a mud pool and make flamboyant sacrifices. This beautifully shot film offers disorienting yet illuminating glimpses of the contradictory and complementary aspects of these two lwa, the electrifying rites that honor them, and the intense music that accompanies these ecstatic and bloody ceremonies.

At All Kosts(2025)

An acting ensemble rehearses for an upcoming theater festival. They rig up stage scenery and practice dialogue and set pieces in the middle of a residential area. But this is no ordinary theater setting, as evidenced by the armed guards at the entrance. Festival 4 Chemins is taking place in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. Gangs are active in the city; you can hear machine-gun fire in the distance.

La Tragédie du Roi Christophe(1965)

Haiti: 'Land of Dark Majesty'(1941)

In this FitzPatrick's Traveltalk short, a trip to Haiti serves as a portal into its history, mainly under 19th century ruler Henri Christophe.

Living memories

Living Memories is a documentary film that traces the history of the director’s neighborhood and native country, Haiti, through a personal and engaged perspective. Brick by brick, through encounters and wanderings throughout Port-au-Prince’s neighborhoods, archival photos, graffiti, and animations, the filmmaker introduces us to architect Léon Mathon and the residential architecture of the early 20th century. Over the ruins of her family home, Dominique, the director's mother, an architect like her father and grandfather before her, searches through her memories and significant places for traces of the past and the history of her country. Many of her landmarks are no longer there. From this tragedy arises a quest — a need to reconnect memory and history to understand the present better. The filmmaker follows her mother during her journey, capturing her reflections and conversations and documenting them to bring memories back to life.