Moulded by the spectacular events shaping Haiti, over three decades Baptiste transforms from Aristide loyalist to rogue gang leader in a fight for survival.
DESCENT is an hour-long serial drama. A political thriller set in the midst of Haiti’s ongoing rebellion. It explores our most basic human instinct, survival. Through military dictatorships, CIA coups and a catastrophic earthquake, Baptiste is determined to outrun Haiti’s tumultuous history swirling around a revolutionary figure, Jean Bertrand Aristide.
We witness Haiti’s descent into anarchy through Baptiste’s eyes with illuminating voice-over narration from his older self -- a notorious gang leader reflecting on his life, his country and to what depths people will sink in the pursuit of money. As a handful of elite families tighten their grip on Haiti, aided by self-interested foreign governments, the country spirals toward chaos and Baptiste gradually becomes the dictator he despised.
Stylistically, DESCENT is reminiscent of “City of God”. In Haiti’s most chaotic moments the camera work is gritty, fast-paced, unsettling. In the personal lives of our main characters, where life exists amidst turmoil, the cinematography is reminiscent of “Before Night Falls” featuring vibrant tropical colours, lush and expressive imagery.
This series has the authentic feel of a documentary and the dramatic tension of a world on the brink of disaster, where people have nothing left to lose. Similar to “Narcos”, emotive news archive documenting pivotal events in Haiti’s storied past ground this dramatic series in reality.
Voice-over narration from an older, wiser Baptiste is woven into the series, giving clarity to the rapid pace of Haitian history capturing the way history feels, how it maims, bewilders, enmeshes us. In these reflective moments - the anti-hero Baptiste is destined to become - confides what he knows now. We discover at the end of season one, this hindsight is delivered from beyond the grave, after his death.
Structurally, each season exists as a stand-alone journey, beginning and ending at key turning points in Haiti’s history. Each story arc provides episodes that work as dramatic television, but at the same time makes a cogent argument about the indomitable human spirit and the inevitable failure of colonial worlds divided into rulers and subjects.
What I know now is urgent, complex, hard-hitting and epic.
Nadine Pequeneza is an award-winning documentary director-producer, fiction screenplay writer and the founder of HitPlay Productions in Toronto. Over the past 10 years, her films have garnered 12 Canadian Screen Award nominations, including a CSA for Best Writing; the Gold Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival and Sichuan Festival’s Gold Panda Special Jury Award. She is a 3-time nominee for the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary. HitPlay's films have premiered at Hot Docs, VIFF, DocEdge, Ji.hlava and other notable festivals.
Pequeneza’s fiction screenplays are based on more than two decades of filming true stories around the world. Her first feature screenplay 1047 DAYS was a semi-finalist for the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship 2023, and the adapted short was selected for the CFC/Netflix Calling Card Accelerator. Her second feature RARE EARTH was selected for Stowe Story Labs, Athena Writers Lab and the Alfred P. Sloane Fellowship 2025. Her latest dramatic TV pilot DESCENT was a top-10 finalist in Final Draft’s Big Break Competition 2025 and has been selected for The Writers Lab Canada 2026.
HitPlay is currently in production on three feature documentaries: an undisclosed hybrid documentary (Ford Foundation, Perspective Fund, StoryBoard Collective), a Canada-Spain co-production SEEING GREEN (Telus, Knowledge Network, CMF POV, Telefilm, Redford Center, ICAA, ICEC, Caixa) and a Denmark-Canada co-production ACCOUNTERS OF WAR (DK, DFI, CBC, CMF, Rogers).
Pequeneza is an alumnus of The Redford Center grantee program for environmental storytelling and The Fledgling Fund’s Engagement Lab for audience outreach and film distribution. She is immediate past Chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), a member of DOC, Canadian Media Producers Association, Directors Guild of Canada and the International Documentary Association.
Writers Lab Canada 2026 - Selected
Final Draft Big Break Competition 2025 - Finalist
Writers Lab International 2025 - Quarterfinalist
Writers X Writers 2025 - Semifinalist
Writer - Nadine Pequeneza
