All language subtitles for Citizen.Penn.2020.720p.WEBRip.x264-KOMPOST

[airplane engine roaring]

- [cameras click]
- [indistinct chatter]

[Jamie] Ladies and gentlemen
please take your seats,

we have an amazing show tonight,

you are gonna do something
good while feeling good,

we are doing good
in the world tonight.

Please make some noise Sean
Penn, this beautiful night,

- let's get it going.
- [audience clapping]

Oh, come on, loosen it all,

y'all can do better
than that, man,

see I know y'all in the 47.5%
tax bracket but come on.

The Russians are testing
hypersonic nuclear weapons,

impulsive, populous leaders
are playing politics

with a global economy
while alienating allies

and climatologists
give us about 11 years,

before global
catastrophic failure.

Lies, greed, rage,
sexism, racism,

threaten to induce further
violence in our own streets.

Fentanyl and heroin are
functioning as rabid assassins,

across the country and
meanwhile we here in Hollywood,

we cannibalize each
other on social media,

often under the guise
of taking a stand,

while too often taking
no stand on the ground.

It's my wish for us to get
grounded together tonight.

Now, there are cardinal
rules in fundraising,

don't bum out the crowd.

[audience laugh]

Let's party.

Family gun dad.

[reporter] The
public was fascinated,

by Madonna's turbulent
marriage to Sean Penn

and the attention
wasn't always welcome.

[reporter] The headlines
told a familiar story,

actor in conflict
with photographer,

Penn, pleaded no
contest, was fined $100

and given a 90-day sentence.

[glass shatters]

What difference you
think you can make,

one single man in
all this madness?

Thank you for loving me.

[reporter 2] As the
UN's inspectors hunt

for weapons of mass destruction
and the US threatens war,

to disarm Saddam Hussein
quietly and discreetly,

one of Hollywood's
hottest actors Sean Penn,

has arrived in Baghdad
without an entourage.

[reporter 3] Hollywood's
former bad boy,

was welcomed in
Baghdad with open arms.

[reporter] Not for a movie

but to visit a Baghdad
children's hospital

"saying he is there for
a "deeper understanding

"of the crisis with the US,"

Sean Penn, the
diplomat, who knew?

This is one big publicity stunt

on the behalf of Sean Penn.

What exactly did
Sean Penn expect?

Just showing up in Iraq
implies that he's on their side.

There's a fine
tradition in this country

of American celebrities making
themselves a useful idiots

for anti US dictators.

It is our opinion
that Hollywood stars,

who come off as strident and
uninformed in political matters

risk hurting their
careers if they speak out.

Say what you will about
Penn the guy went out in a boat

and actually pulled
people to safety,

so, to recap this guy
came down four days later,

to mourn the loss of
Trent Lott's house,

well, "I am Sam" waited
through toxic sludge in a dinghy.

George Kennan and Dick
Cheney and Condoleezza Rice

and George Bush et al
should be in fucking jail.

[audience applaud]

You've been an actor since
you were very, very young,

have you been committing
treason since you were young?

[audience laugh]

[reporter] Penn, has
called for the impeachment

of just about everybody in
the Bush administration,

Sean Penn you are this
week's enemy of the state.

Anti-American Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez

has a brand new American pal,

this time it is actor Sean Penn.

[woman] The criticism
could be heard echoing,

throughout Washington.

They lambasted him
for allowing himself,

to be paraded around by Chavez
as an anti-American puppet.

And the Oscar goes to Sean Penn.

[audience clapping]

I think that it is a good
time for those who voted

for the ban against gay
marriage to sit and reflect

and anticipate their great shame

and the shame in their
grandchildren's eyes,

we've got to have equal
rights for everyone

[audience applaud]

And I wanted to be very clear,

that I do know how hard I
make it to appreciate me often.

[audience laugh]

[Don] And A, B, C mark, marker,

place to start is probably
January 12th, 2010.

How did you first
find out what happened

and I guess get inspired to act?

Well, I had been
single parenting my son

for about eight months after
divorce with my kid's mother.

In that time period he had a
terrible skateboard accident

and had to have
emergency brain surgery.

Afterwards he was
in enormous pain,

when they put morphine in
him and I saw him get relief,

that had sort of been
locked in my head.

Now, he had a really
extraordinarily fast recovery

just kind of a miracle
within a couple of months,

he was 100% and by that time
his mother had found a place

and wanted to spend
some time with him

and my daughter was already
living on her own at that time,

So, I found myself for
the first time in 20 years

without kids in the
house or a wife.

The first four days of that,

you know, pursued what one
might think I would pursue

and in that effort found
myself striking out

and instead getting home to
this house drunk and exhausted

and passing out and
coming to in the morning

and trying it all over
again the next day,

that went on for
about four days,

when I just realized
I'm just too tired

and this is all too
new and too much.

The other freedom I now have,

that I'm alone,
single in the world

is I can turn the television
on in the middle of the day

and nobody's going
to gripe at me

and I turned it on and it
was the Haiti earthquake.

[glass shattering]

[cars honking]

We're following the
breaking news out of Haiti,

the largest, most
powerful earthquake

in the region's history
has crippled the country,

measuring 7.0.

[reporter 4] Center just West

of densely populated
Port-au-Prince,

a city of 2 million people
now largely in ruins,

bodies are reportedly
stacked in the streets,

schools, hospitals, churches
and homes have collapsed.

The first black Republic
in the Western hemisphere,

born of a slave uprising
Haiti has been the epicenter

of natural and political crisis.

[Obama] For a
country and a people,

who are no strangers to
hardship and suffering,

this tragedy seems especially
cruel and incomprehensible.

[man 2] With hospitals collapsed

and no doctors or
ambulances in the streets,

people realized
it was up to them.

There's no help, no
hospital, no electricity nothing.

[man 3] It's worse than
anyone could have imagined.

[man 4] Search and rescue
efforts are severely hampered,

food, shelter, water and
especially medical care,

all in short supply.

Immediately, the
reports I was seeing

were of traumatic injuries
that required amputations

and no intravenous
pain medication.

I had had some experience in
areas of natural disaster,

particular in new
Orleans post-Katrina

and what that had taught me

was that you can never get
enough help in these situations.

I got in touch with Paul Farmer,

through my first wife Madonna,

who had worked
with him in Malawi.

He was in Port-au-Prince
trying to help the effort

at university hospital and
I asked him what was needed

and he said 350,000
vials of morphine.

And I thought that sounds
like a lot of morphine,

the way that I've
always joked about it,

is that an actor in Hollywood
knows how to find drugs

but not bulk narcotics

but I had done some
work in Venezuela,

where I knew that
president Chavez,

could expedite something
into civilian hands,

unlike in the United
States system.

I called president
Chavez and I said,

if I get a few guys together

and we go rent some trucks
to be a distribution service,

will you send 350,000 bottles
of morphine and ketamine?

And he did it.

[helicopter rotors chuffing]

- Holy moly!
- Holy moly.

[Paul] We got
some supplies here.

[Sean] We went there
with the intention

of distributing this
for about two weeks

and then hightailing
it back to California.

But over the course of the
several days that it took,

to organize all the logistics,

medical supplies, food supplies,

we started accumulating other
volunteers who wanted to help.

There were a total of 30 of
us by the time we went in,

seven of whom were doctors.

Many of you know better than
I do what we're about to face,

which is likely total chaos.

When we get into this place,

the first thing that
happens is that,

everybody needs you most.

There'll be an immediate
attempt to absorb,

particularly doctors,
from the time

we get into Port-au-Prince,
to the time we have

any semblance of organization,

imagine very little
sleep in 48 hours pass.

How long are we
prepared to be there?

[Sean] That's an answer
everybody has for themself.

Now I have no exit strategy.
If anybody needs certainty

on when and how they're
getting out of Haiti,

maybe not a good idea to go.

- [plane engine roars]
- [upbeat music]

Can't wait to get there
that's what is on my mind

and scared also what
we're gonna find.

From the moment we
landed it was chaotic.

So, right now I'm just
offering drives to people,

who wants to get in the
car, get in the car now.

[upbeat music]

[Sean] It's kind
of like a heavyweight

just punched a lightweight
with everything he's got,

that was what that earthquake
did to a whole population

for a while there people
were just in another place

and then you had the constant
the thickness of the air

and that smell of dead bodies
is a very particular smell,

and you're traveling over
rubble and downed power lines

and the whole city
was torn to shreds.

We found a house that was
deserted, set up camp there.

This is gonna be our home,

basically this is where
everybody's gonna sleep

because it's unsafe to
stay under any walls

We were a plan without a
plan 'cause we had to go fast

and I had bought 14,000
Chinese water purifiers,

so, we had one volunteer
whose job was to get a truck

with a local pastor and go
to all the church groups,

that would teach
them how to use it

and then spread them to
the different villages.

So, one person was doing that

and then we had our
medical personnel,

setting up with a medical
coordinator, Dr. Raul Reese

and there was Edna Nonez,

former Haitian national
police officer,

who was doing some
private security work,

then there was captain Barry,

who'd go anywhere do
anything, anytime of day,

hysterical, great
sense of humor,

he was certainly one of
our gold standard guys,

through those first many months.

On the menu this evening,
I'll be catering the fair,

we're going to have
pasta linguine,

cooked al dente
with a Ragu sauce

and garlic bread on the side.

[man 5] How about little wine?

I've heard we had a bottle
of wine or two on this location

and for dessert we're
gonna have breakfast bars.

[man 5] Okay, great.

[Sean] He was also like
an in-house videographer,

I forbade any kind of
coverage photography,

by any of our staff with the
exception of Captain Barry

because I knew that if people
saw me being photographed,

it was gonna add to this idea,

that I was there
to self-promote.

Captain Barry was the one guy,

who I trusted a
camera in his hand,

that he'd know
when to walk away.

So, the lights are
gonna go out pretty soon

and the reason why
they're gonna go out soon

is we have very little
fuel in our generator

but at least we
have some lights on

and there is a sense
of security here.

[Sean] We got the news that
the shipment was gonna come in

from the Venezuelans,

we grabbed one of our trucks
to go and pick it all up

and a couple of weapons
'cause we were gonna be carrying

in the back of an open
truck, you know morphine.

We're here collecting
our distribution,

to bring it back to our doctors

and to the areas that we've
targeted that need it.

We got lidocaine,
ketamine, IV morphine,

so, that's a lot of
people out of pain

in a second and a half.

We didn't have any proper
place to store them,

so, I had it all in my tent
and it's quite a thing,

to have a tent with
hundreds of thousands

of vials of morphine in it.

Watching these amputations
happen with saws,

that were taken out of hardware
stores or whatever it was,

I mean, virtually civil
war medicine stuff,

that was going on.

You're registering
faces of human beings,

that have just taken
this incredible hit

and they could be like
I'm looking at you,

another adult right now

but you can also be
looking at a small child

in that situation

and you're of course
thinking of your own kids.

Our philosophy was
pretty simple,

if a kid's in the
middle of the road,

a truck is gonna hit that kid

and you may have a
sidewalk full of pedophiles

but you're gonna get that kid
and put them on the sidewalk.

You deal with the other
problem afterwards

and too many organizations
were covering step two,

step three, step four and in
an emergency you can't do that,

You have to stop a bleeding

and then deal with
whatever the recovery is.

Every day you would notice
military helicopters,

going over and landing
somewhere close,

to where we were camped,

so, one of the fellas
that was with us,

he saw that the US
military was up there.

[military man speaking]

[speaking]

That's probably it.

Do you need anything?

[Sean] He came down and said,

wait till you see
what's right up here.

[suspenseful music]

[speaking]

[Sean speaking]

There's one golf
course in all of Haiti

and a big Stonewall around it,
probably those neighborhoods,

which we would associate
in the United States

with slum neighborhoods

but they were kind of
Haitian middle-class

and most of those people
probably never seen the golf course

because there's this
big high wall around.

The wall fell down
in two parts of it

and it was the only
empty green space

for people to go from
their collapsed houses,

and 35,000 people were
there within days.

Hello.

[Sean] I'm Sean.

I think this is probably a
great way to start every day,

just sit here and see average
people just like ourselves

and friends back home except
in a national disaster,

just knock the shit out
of their homes.

They don't have them anymore

and they don't have any money
to be able to do anything,

get out of here, everyone
here lost somebody

and many are continuing
to lose people.

It's not something
little, it's too big.

But it's probably the best
church to check in with every day,

before we go do what
we're trying to do.

The Lieutenant Colonel
in command there onsite,

was Lieutenant
Colonel, Mike Foster,

he says you can stay here as
long as you're productive,

the second you're not
productive, you go.

[Barry] Good morning everybody,

- good morning, good morning.
- Good morning.

Trying to make base camp.

Sean, I see that you're
really busy texting right now.

Oh no, no, you gotta be
kidding. I'm not doing...

[Barry] What do you got there?

Got a few extra tents.

Our camp's changing every
day, we move things every day.

We're seeing a lot of patients

with the orthopedic
injuries, infection, sepsis,

crush injuries. We're seeing
actually a lot of tetanus now.

We had the great day
today, I feel re-pumped,

we saw about almost
350 patients,

[Barry] Wow, that's
the day so far.

The best day so far and
tomorrow's gonna be a better day.

[Sean] The federalized doctors,

who are sent to
supplement military medics

called DMAT,

they set up a tent hospital
and after only a few weeks,

they were going
to pull up stakes.

The financing had
run out on the DMATs,

you know, they'd done
your first responder stuff

and here's this tent hospital
with all kinds of equipment

and medications and everything
and they were gonna take it.

And you can't. We've got
doctors that can run this

and everybody held hands
including some of them DMAT doctors

and circled it and refused
to let it get pulled up

and Lieutenant Colonel Foster
got on the phone with Pentagon

and said, I agree with them.

They ultimately agreed
to leave it behind,

that became the JP hospital.
We stole it from the government,

[laughs] We stole it basically.

Doctors all took off
and our doctors went in,

that became our hospital.

- [nurse] You want to have the line in?
- Yes.

We're gonna deliver a baby here,

this is our first day as
an operational hospital,

even though we
haven't even started

but we're gonna continue to
work through the transition.

- First baby.
- This is their first baby. Okay.

It was free and it began
the top hospital for the camp

and for all the
surrounding communities.

People from around the
world wanted to help

in Haiti who were
identifying us.

Not only individuals, we
would get a lot of hospitals

from Canada, the US,
doctors or nurses

and they'd come down
for a two week stint

and we would rotate one out
and then put another one in,

when they left and so on.
We had them coming, going,

you know, all the time.
Even gunshot victims

and stabbings,

those kinds of
things would happen.

A lot of gastrointestinal stuff.

We delivered a lot of babies

and we had a zero
maternal mortality rate.

Our hospital was about a
hundred meters from my tent,

so, before I'd go to bed,
I'd always go and check in,

if the hospital needed
anything and you never knew,

you know, what was going on.

The mother was acting
very out of sorts,

she must have a psych or
post-traumatic stress disorder,

She was feeding the
baby and the bottle,

some kind of bleach

but we don't know how
much the baby ingested,

The aunt saved the baby's life,

by grabbing it from the
mother, it's horrible.

He's got a good pulse
can you feel it?

I'll just do it a little bit
harder and just take over.

Kinda like that.

We could take people up
to a certain degree of care,

we could do minor surgeries

but once you had
something that required,

you know, something
more sophisticated,

we had to transport
them somewhere.

- We got it, Sean, we go it, Sean.
- You got one here?

Okay, good luck.

Uh, right now we're in transit

and we might be
delivering a baby.

Let's pray that
it doesn't happen

in the back of
this pickup truck.

It's rush hour now so
we hope we get there,

we're driving like a
hundred miles an hour,

around the slippery
old turn-iest old roads.

She's starting to scream now.

We got security clearing
the streets for us.

Oh man, I could hear her
voice over all this traffic.

A few more minutes
and we'll be there.

So, we got a young guy on a
motorcycle ahead of us now,

telling everybody to clear the
way. We now have an escort.

Hold on, hold on, hold
on, hold on, hold on.

[Barry] We got the
driver doing a good job.

Great job, great job.
You are the man today bro.

I'm trying to show you
speedometer but it's broken.

All right this is like home
sweet home Saint Damien,

we've been here a
couple of times.

Closest main
hospital that we got.

Let's go!

[crowd applauding and singing]

[speaking in Creole]

[woman screaming]

[indistinct chatter]

[Raul] But she's
one centimeter vertex

and I was told that she
was eight centimeters

and she was a breech pregnancy,

so in that regards we
put her on the truck

and we came immediately and
with a more controlled exam,

that was in this hospital with
the appropriate equipment,

that we do not have
available in the camp,

this is the information we
found and she's gonna be okay.

We improvised a lot,

you know, it was a good
thing the first year,

that I had no awareness of
Haitian or international law.

[laughs] I just didn't know.

[gentle music]

I was born in Haiti and lived
there until I was about 11,

now, I'm here in Kansas,

to direct the institute
of Haitian studies.

Sometimes people forget that
Haiti has a complex rapport

with the US, with France, with
the international community,

Back to becoming the first
successful, documented,

slave revolt Haitian fought
for their independence,

they are proud of that.
The US colonized Haiti,

you know, call it the
American occupation,

so, when you go into that space,

acting as if that
never happened,

there's that weariness,
that lack of trust.

I remember hearing about
Sean Penn's being there

and for me, I have very
mixed feelings about people,

who go into these spaces,

when they go without talking
to people who know the history.

This is what was happening
with a lot of well-meaning people.

If you wanna help someone
shut up and listen.

[laughs] I mean, it
sounds very simplistic

but so many times,
well-meaning people,

well-meaning organizations,
they don't know how to do that

and it goes back to
this idea of power.

Who has power, how is
power seen, who has control

and a lot of time,
they see it as,

even at a subconscious level,

I am superior than you
are, I am here to help you

and by helping what I mean is,

I'm here to tell you what to do

and you need to
do things my way.

I don't mean to sound like
all aid organization are bad,

there are some organization,

that are doing
incredible work in Haiti.

I have a lot of
respect for them.

And the difference
between this organization

and so many others is
that they're working

with people on the ground.

[car engine revving]

[Sean] We got very encouraged,

we could immediately
see is effectiveness

but then the young
Haitians that saw,

that we were being effective
came and became the lead

in the organization, so
it became a Haitian born

and formed organization
from the beginning.

[speaks Creole]

I don't call J/P HRO,
"Sean Penn organization,"

I don't see that,

I see it as us, as our
organization as a team.

Faine was... He was a battery.

Like a battery
with a smile on it.

And he basically
came to the camp

and said he wanted
to talk to me.

I came up and this guy says,

you know, "You're
helping my country."

"I wanna help you
help my country,"

And then I don't think he
went to bed for the next year.

[Faine] I was working
in Dominican Republic

and four days after the
earthquake I come back home

because I've been trying to
reach my family on the phone,

I couldn't reach nobody. My
mom's house collapsed completely

but no one died, but I
have a lot of good friends,

that passed away
in that tragedy.

It is very important
for us, as Haitians

to put hands together,

to rebuild this country.

[Sean] There was also the
young Haitian doctor Jean Marc

and he was saving a
lot of people's lives.

I worked for at
least six or seven,

different other organizations

and I don't see some
of those organizations,

most of them really concerned.

But if I work for six
or seven hours for J/P,

it seems like I work for
24 hours, I work so much,

there were so many things
to do and we had to do them

and we did it for my people.

Haitian doctors have the
will, they have the will

and they do what they can
but they have some limits

and when we find what we
need, we have no limits.

Believe it.

[helicopter rotors chuffing]

[Sean] I remember I had
never seen it from the air

and I had not gotten
emotional once.

You know, I saw horrible things

but I had gotten in that
head you know, it's fixable.

I can't bring back this
life knew that coming in

but this situation, this
big picture is fixable

and then the
helicopter took off.

Once I got a thousand feet
over the city of Port-au-Prince,

the devastation is too big.

I don't know if this
can ever, ever heal.

And it tore my guts out to see

because what had looked so
fixable big but fixable,

my arrogance was we can fix
it. I was humbled immediately

and I guess almost losing faith.

But then you know,
we took on our area,

others took on their areas,
all those areas come together,

voom.

[upbeat music]

We gotta load it
up, we're on the way.

I'm Alvin, from
upstate New York, Fort Bragg.

Specialist Bill from
Washington, Illinois,

coming out of Fort Bragg.

[Sean] Without question
in my experience to date,

the best humanitarian aid
organization ever built

is the US military.

They, like those of us
who came from movies,

want the mission
accomplished yesterday

and make your apologies later.

Sending out MREs 'cause
it's safe to leave the camp.

Approximately 2,000 MREs.

They're helping, the
82nd airborne today,

which is making it
a lot less chaotic.

This is very common,
everything's working out sweet.

They're the ones who
told us you watch,

we've got hard deployments
in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

These were teams that were
already set to head down there,

when this earthquake
suddenly had them deployed,

initially 22,000 troops
President Obama sent to Haiti.

And they said, "tops
we were gonna be here"

"about three months,"

I said, no, no, I couldn't
imagine them leaving.

And these guys would say,

yeah, you're gonna end up
managing this whole freaking thing

and I'm thinking no,

I mean, you think you're
talking to an adult

and the next thing
you know, they're gone

and a UN organization
made us camp managers.

What was the initial numbers
about 35,000 displaced people

had expanded to 60,000 people.

It was the highest density
population camp in Port-au-Prince.

Each night the only
thing I could say

as I went to bed
was, "oh, shit."

[Barry] Good morning
everybody, good morning.

What's the deal? Everybody's
having coffee and breakfast

and you're out here working
what's up with that?

Sometimes it's them
while I'm having coffee.

[Barry laughs]

We're all doing the same
thing and alternating shifts.

Did you hear about the discovery

of the flesh-eating disease
in our water system?

[Barry] No, give me an update.

- Just kidding.
- [Barry laughs]

Usually started the day
around 6:30 in the morning.

A remodel period!

And we usually wrapped it up
about three in the morning.

People were suspicious.

Was I there to you know,
pick up a baby and kiss it

in front of a camera
and then leave?

What was I doing?

There was the issue that
none of the other NGOs,

were living in a camp.

Their organizations paid for
nice hotels or apartments

and things like that for
all of their foreign staff

and we were living in a camp.

I gotta be honest, I'm always
weary about celebrities,

who come to disaster zones

and they usually stay for
very short periods of time,

appear before the
cameras and then take off

but actor, director Sean Penn

has been here now for
almost three weeks,

why have you stay so long?

Because our organization
J/P HRO was being so effective.

In a situation like that,

especially early on the
first couple of weeks,

you know, it's like
all hands on deck,

it's like whatever anybody
can do to help anybody

is worthwhile and good
and it just surprised me,

that this guy who has just
arrived with a desire to help,

where now all of a sudden,

there's tens of
thousands of people

and he is caring for them.

It shows you also how, how
truly fucked up things were,

you know, if you're
thinking to yourself,

huh, who can I get to run a camp

for you know what 50,000
people, 60,000 people in Haiti?

Oh yeah, Sean Penn, that'll
be the guy, that'll be it.

You know, you'd be
laughed out of the room

but you know what? He did.

What needs to change
on the ground now,

what do people in America
need to know, what can they do?

I started doing a
lot of interviews

with Sean on my broadcast.

He's obviously
extraordinarily compelling

but then there's also his
ability to get across the urgency

of the situation.

One missionary once said,
something to me about,

you know, Haiti, when
it gets you, it gets you.

What about Haiti has got you?

You're only flying 90
minutes from your own country

and to land in a world
that has been so neglected

with people who have
had so little experience

with any of the
comforts that we know

and to see their
strength of character

and to see this incredible
possibility within our reach

in terms of our will to help

and our ability to do what
we've shown it already.

We could actually have the
example of what happens,

when the developing world is
given the productive support,

to become the developed world.

He was able to raise the
profile of what was happening

and probably get
people interested,

who may not have paid
attention to it previously.

So, to people in
the States that say,

well, look I gave money
it's all still the same

and I shouldn't
give any more money.

If you don't trust an
NGO, find a family to adopt,

get in touch with our NGO.

You don't have to
get us the money,

I'll find you family to adopt
I can give you their number,

you can talk to them
and find out what it is

but don't stop giving.

Anderson Cooper gave me
the mic for kind of calls to action

and to call people out,

I never was ashamed to
blackmail organizations,

basically saying, I'll
get on Anderson's show

and I'll tell the world
that you didn't do this,

and that you're
storing these things,

that needed to be
distributed whatever.

So much show so that I
heard people mimicking me,

you know, mocking
me for doing it

in restaurants in Petion-Ville.

Not knowing I was there.

And they could laugh
all they wanted

but it would never not work

because the easiest
thing in the world

was to get on television
and convince people

not to write a check.

I was up at the camp
and on my walkie,

I got word from a hospital
there was a problem.

A doctor met me outside
the tent and said,

this 14 year old had been
sick for a couple of days,

thought he had like a
fever and he'd get over it.

But he was starting to
get a little unresponsive,

Father brought him in.
His name was Oriel.

And she diagnosed
him with diptheria,

so, I made a couple of calls

and found out there
hadn't been any diphtheria

and what are the chances.

They had just gotten
hit with an earthquake,

they're going to suddenly
get hit with diptheria now?

Come on.

And everybody's
telling me no way.

But I thought she knew
what she was talking about

and so I said, what
do we gotta do?

She says, "This is the
medication we need,"

and it turned into
a day in hell.

We knew we needed
to get him isolated

and in a sterile
atmosphere in a hospital,

a proper hospital not a tent.

If she's right,
he's dying right now.

We drove from one
hospital to another,

getting rejected and
the first case rejected

because they refused to
acknowledge it was diptheria,

the second one because it
was a children's hospital

and he was one year too old
and they again also said,

that they don't
believe it's diptheria.

Our ambulance breaks down,

one of our other
trucks makes its way,

so, now we're in the back
of an open pickup truck

with a kid who now can't talk.

I'm holding on to the kid's legs

on the phone keeping
him stabilized

and nobody could locate this
drug anywhere in the city.

We've been here for three months

and we had the
commanding general

of the United States military,

we had the head of the
American Red Cross,

we had one of the
most important,

television documentary
doctors, Dr. Bob Arnot,

all for the last two hours,

searching the entire
city of Port-au-Prince,

three months into this for
one treatment for diptheria

and we just located it we think.

The CDC are leaving their
dinner, paying their bill

and driving down here to
get us into the premise,

at nine o'clock at night.

And one of our staff
who had gotten the message

and was at a restaurant,

recognized somebody from
CDC at another table,

who happened to be the
one who knew where it was.

I get a call, "We've got it,"

so, we needed to drop him
and go get the medicine.

We forced ourselves
into university hospital

and made them take him.

At that point the father
connected with us,

he got in the back of the truck
with us and we hauled ass.

- 2.5...
- 2.5 is the prophylaxis. So it's 20 doses.

We fucking got it and I
don't mind saying right now,

that I was so irate
that while our guys

were going back to the
cold section to get it,

I'm looking around his
warehouse there's no cameras

and I start taking everything
we'd been needing for months,

I'm like, you know, putting
shit under my shirt,

I go back to the
cold chain area.

I stole some rabies vaccination

in case one of our
people got bit by a--

Like I said... everything
at this stage,

you know, I got $30,000 worth
of medicine out of there

and they came said, we're
ready we jumped in the truck.

[car honks]

[Barry] Where are we at?

General hospital.

We stood there to make sure,

that they put this
medicine in this kid

and I saw that medicine go
in there and I said yes,

you know, it was
fucking thrilling.

[Barry] If something
happens to that kid,

I'll be like fucking pissed.

It's three months and a
warehouse has the medicine

and this is the biggest
hospital in the biggest city

of a country that had the
worst humanitarian disaster

of all time and nobody
bothered to come down here

and tell the administration
where they can find the medicine

much less give it to
them in case it happened.

We get back up to our camp and
you know, there was some rum.

- Cheers everyone, cheers.
- Cheers to Haiti.

[All] Cheers to Haiti.

And I had that first
rum punch thinking,

oh, we saved a life today,
I mean like tangible.

We got up to the news he'd died,

and that was...

I remember being in the truck...

And this is the father.

...on the way back to the
hospital with the medication

and looking into
that father's eyes

and telling him we got
it. Your son's gonna live.

Thank you very much for your
help because I have my son.

You know, I don't have the
possibility to go to the hospice.

You know, I come to the camp,

I saw that you give me your help

and God bless you
and your family,

to give your power
to give me my son,

you know, I like my
son, I love my son,

you know, I thank you very much.

That was a bad day.

Now, imagine that you're
not under this beautiful tent

but you're sitting
down there in the tarp,

I could cry every time.

This is where the
next major catastrophe,

is when it begins
right now, phase two.

[Sean] The UN had determined,

that our camp had the
highest life threat,

relative to mudslide
or flooding,

so, we were gonna have to
organize voluntary relocation.

And the first wave of
relocation to save lives,

we cumulatively need to decompress
the camp by 7,500 persons.

The idea was a planned camp,

where you have a certain
amount of space between tents

if this person cooking
outside with their oil,

you know, lights
their tent on fire,

it's not gonna catch
this one on fire,

you're not gonna
spread disease as much,

you're gonna have all
this kind of stuff.

This is before there were
any plans or resources,

to actually rebuild the city,
permanent housing, or anything.

It's emergency relocation.

They need to start
loading their stuff,

at least an hour before.

[Sean] We figured out a system.

They come for check-in,
we tag them stuff,

we set them up at the gate,

we have a lot of people come in.

[Sean] It's very
important that you didn't

separate families.

That you didn't have
kids taken by somebody,

they weren't supposed to be with

once they started
getting on the buses.

[man 6] After the earthquake,

I seen a lot of people
traumatized and I said,

let me come up by the
camp see how people do

and J/P was just
starting to function.

The earthquake
affected everybody,

the poor, the rich,
white, black, whatever.

We will learn a lesson from
that so in the near future,

if something like
that occurred again,

everything could be
done in a way that,

we'd be able to the
help one another out.

It's like love one another
you know what I mean?

[car engine roars]

[Barry] What did
you write there?

New beginnings.

[car engine roars]

[helicopter rotors chuffing]

[Sean] The relocation camp
was a piece of land chosen

by the Haitian government.

It was right at the
foot of the hills

on the outside of
Port-au-Prince.

For some reason, somebody
had it in their heads

that they wanted it to have
gravel laid out over it

before the camp was built,

which was very odd because
it was a pale gravel,

and it reflected
the sunlight a lot.

And there were no
trees out there at all,

and it was part of the
bigger problem in Haiti,

the deforestation.

And it was also in a kind
of a bad flood plain,

but it was what was available,

and we had what was a very
successful relocation.

Then it became
very controversial.

[reporter 5] In
Corail the government's

primary relocation camps, some
15 miles from Port-au-Prince,

a storm on Monday
collapsed at least 94 tents

and sent hundreds of
residents fleeing to find shelter.

[Sean] I went straight out there

because I was hearing
hell raising is going on,

and I could see the tires
were burning across the city

which is a sign
of social unrest.

And hell yeah, people were
upset, but I went tent to tent

and asked them if they
wanted to come back,

and nobody wanted to come back.

They wanted to stay there
but they were pissed off

and they wanted help
rebuilding these tents.

[plane engine roaring]

What's amazing now is that
turned into its own city.

An area that had
almost no population

has got about 250,000 people.

- [woman singing in Creole]
- [indistinct chatter]

We did a census in our camp,

where did these
people come from?

Almost everybody came
from one neighborhood

which was the one
that had the access

through the break in
the wall, Delmas 32.

So we went and did a site
visit down that community.

Virtually, Delmas had overhead
rubble covering the streets

for miles.

Am I exaggerating?
Miles of just rubble.

This corner was just
like a bar. People stayed here

late at night, having fun here.

There was a TV here,
there was water here.

This corner there was a
cement all the way down there

but most of the people in the
area we used to hang out here.

So this was like
the town square.

Exactly.

[car engine roars]

I said, I wanna
clear this rubble.

We have to be very, very clear.

[Sean] And so we started
an engineering Corps.

Got a civil engineer, a
former military engineer,

from the British forces.

And the truck was
being loaded here. Yeah?

[Sean] And a country
director, also a Brit,

also former military.

They developed a
rubble removal plan.

And this fella up in
Seattle, Richard Hots,

who had a company called
Alaska structures,

every tent the US military
puts up on any branch

in the military,
around the world,

almost all of them come
from Alaska Structures.

So this was a guy who
started camping tent business

and became a very
wealthy philanthropist.

Agreed with me politically
on not one thing ever.

You're the first person I've
seen really get on the ground

and stay on the ground.

[Sean] But he saw me on
the Anderson Cooper show

and he saw that we
agreed on Haiti.

He came in and gave us our
first rubble removal grant

of a quarter of a
million dollars.

Today, you find us at
Rue Petion in Delmas 32

which is our primary
rubble removal site.

You can see the CAT
behind me operating

and we have two of them
operating at the moment

and they can move 140 cubic
meters of rubble a day.

We have a team of Haitian
and international volunteers

running it, but
with one of these,

we clear 140 cubic meters a day

and we have 200,000
cubic meters to clear.

[Sean] We became the
principal in that area,

and there were
bodies in that rubble

and that was another sensitive
issue, at a certain point.

You don't have the
sophisticated stuff or the money

or the time to
surgically take care

and do a forensic on this
thing for the family.

So you have to go to
the family and say,

"Do you have a loved
one in that house?"

You know 'cause this
is now months later.

There's no search and rescue
going on at this point,

all there's gonna be is bones.

And so when you were doing
a rubble removal on a site

where there was likely a body,
the community leaders agreed

that the way they would do
it, you let the family come,

they pour little gasoline
through the fissures and light it.

[singing in Creole]

That's not an easy life
for those men and women

that work in those teams
because you take it home.

During the earthquake, the
front of this actually killed

a number of individuals who
were running down this corridor

to escape from the
inside of this area.

As you can see right
here, this wall is,

it's just kinda,
it's just there.

It's a recipe for a very
dangerous situation.

When it's a dangerous
house, we'll put caution tape

and then we keep people
away from passing.

So we never know when
things can happen.

[Jeff] This is a property

that we've been
doing demolition on,

it was a three-story property

and right now we're
on the first floor

which actually was
the second floor.

The property collapsed
crushing the first floor

and now it's just a matter
of bringing the rubble

from inside the property,
out to the street.

When you see the
devastation that this earthquake

has caused this country, and
when you see the degradation

of just about everything
that you can think of,

what people have lost
in a matter of seconds,

and here you are fortunate
enough to be able to help,

and if you come and do
it, you're not doing it

with your heart, man,
you know what I'm saying,

there's nothing that
you will be able to do.

[Sean] As soon as
that rubble was cleared

in various sections, people
started moving back on their own

to the houses that
were not destroyed,

or moving back and setting up
a tent on their old property.

Businesses started cropping
up on the street again

and you felt this
vibrancy building up

that they were doing on
their own without any help.

So we took what had
been our camp services

and lessons learned and
transferred them to the area

that these camp
residence came from,

and it was in that
step-by-step way,

we would get people starting
to get out of the camp.

[indistinct chatter]

So you can see,
you can follow me.

All this, this is
our prenatal section.

All the women, they
stay here and wait.

Once their vital sign is done
here, this is this Desiah.

- Desiah say hello.
- Hello.

Desiah is one of our
newly graduated EMT.

He was in the EMT program.

I was born in Delmas and
then my father passed away

and my mom couldn't
stay here any longer,

so she decided we should
move to New York for a better life.

I assimilated to the American
culture, went to nice schools,

I got a great education,
had a fantastic job

at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center

for many, many years
and then I got married,

had three kids and had
the American dream.

And then a friend
of mine called me.

It was on January
12th, around like 4:55,

check CNN, the end of the
world is happening in Haiti.

You could hear the screaming.

This cry was different,
it was like painful cries.

Right then, then I said,
I'm moving back to Haiti.

Our prenatal clinic
is right here.

We see all the pregnant
women from the beginning

of a positive pregnancy test,
all the way until they deliver.

We do all their care
for them free of charge.

We have over a thousand
babies born, no death.

Thank God. So far,
knock on wood.

We started with her 30
international volunteers,

now we have more than 100
Haitian medical professionals

providing quality care.

If we weren't there, I
guarantee you a lot of patients

would have died from
preventable and treatable illnesses.

[car engine roars]

[indistinct chatter]

[Sean] For who don't
know in that first year,

7,000 people died an hour
and a half from Miami beach

of a disease you
cannot die from here.

If you get cholera and
you don't treat it in time

you're gonna die, period.

It takes all the water
out of your body.

15 boxes of ORS.

[Sean] We ended up getting
a warehouse down Cite Solei

and got a hundred thousand
units of Ringer's lactate

and supplies.

Right now they're loading
the tents that are gonna

be used to create the
cholera treatment centers.

Self-contained units so that
the patients are isolated

and can be treated
specifically for cholera.

[Sean] And we were starting
to track the breakouts.

Coordinating with the
cellular phone companies.

You could track migrations,

so you could see that
large amounts people

were moving away from an area,

and you knew immediately
that that area had cholera.

So we started working
with the Cuban doctors

'cause they had a brigade
there and they had donkeys,

so they could go up in the
areas that we couldn't get to.

And then we had the
elections coming up

and when elections
come up, traditionally,

you get social unrest.

The last thing in the world
that we needed was gun battles

in the streets while people
were dying of cholera

and while they had no hard
shelter, they're in camps.

Everybody's in camps.

We cannot rule out the
possibility of violence in our camp.

For the next 48 hours,
I would request that

no one enter the camp
unless it's absolutely necessary

to your job.

So now we started
paying for helicopters

and then mixing that
with working with

the UN humanitarian air service,

and that way we could,
by air, bring our doctors

and the medication out
to all these hotspots

throughout the country.

- [gentle music]
- [plane engine roars]

[speaking in Creole]

I never believed something
like this could happen

in my country.

I feel so low, I feel so down.

It's too much.

It's too much. [sighs heavily]

[plane engine roars]

You know I think in one
year we might've spent

as much as $25 million,
but that's when you were

in the emergency phase and
big grants were coming in.

So that was, you know, then.

As time went on, I had
to pay for all that stuff

with private money.

So then we had to do the gala.

- [camera clicks] -
[reporters shout indistinctly]

Tonight we're here to celebrate
Sean Penn and J/P HRO

and the great work they've
been doing for Haiti.

With such star
names helping Haiti.

These events are key
to Haiti's recovery.

[Sean] It's the
worst part of it.

It's the thing
that'll burn you out

faster than anything else.

The hat in handness of it.

We're ready to rock
and we need you badly.

You know, it's always a
struggle of calling friends

and enemies [audience laughs]

and telling them
they're your friends.

- [Sean laughs]
- [audience laughs]

You're just begging
because the people there

are working so hard
and heroically.

We've had extraordinary
people help us in two ways.

One of those, you know,
you'll have an art auction

and who are willing
to pony up big bids

to help out the organization.

The artists who
contribute the art,

then we have musical guests.

And the musical guests have
been the greatest bands

in the world, really
extraordinary.

So you have to work
very hard to make sure

that it's a good night for them.

You want that.

And so there's that pressure.

And then there's the pressure
of how much are you gonna pull.

Who's gonna start any number
you can do in this room.

Let's just start adding it up.

Everybody in here can
vote for the future.

Just give me a number
5,000, 10,000, 20,000.

Just give me a number. Who?

You've got 300 people in a
room. By the end of that night,

if you make $6 million
out of those 300 people

it's probably coming
out of five pockets.

And you're looking around
the room wondering,

if you're here in Beverly Hills,

and you're watching
this entertainment,

you're watching YouTube and
they're pouring their hearts out

you don't have $500
to donate? [laughs]

And I know a lot of
people in that room,

they have a lot more
than $500 to donate,

and they come year after
year to these things

and never put up anything,
and it's pretty infuriating.

Okay, I'm just gonna really
look around this room.

Come on, man.

These people are dying over
there, we need your help,

I've already given millions
of dollars, it's time.

I've gotten worse
and worse at it.

I quit every year.

Quite frankly, the bottom
line is, they're waiting now,

young brains are starving
for education now,

there's malnutrition now as
we're sitting here tonight

and I trust that you don't
need me to be very charming

to tell you that what
we've got to do is raise

a lot of money tonight.

Everybody in this room,

every one of you can
contribute to this.

And you know, you know from
the people who were up here,

I'm not fucking around.

We're gonna make your money
work, give us that money.

We need the goddamn money.

We need the support now.

[sighs heavily] Help
us finish this job.

Reach deep, then reach deeper.

We share one second
on Earth together.

Let's do it right.

I know these evenings can
be long, but trust me.

And then there's the people
who are so supportive,

and you can get champions
in a lot of corners,

people who contribute
in a lot of ways to it.

-Sold to--[audience claps]

But it's a beast.

We're constantly looking for
new ways to sustain things.

If there's one true lesson
that I myself have learned

from Haitians is that if you
are shoved down to the ground

wounded, hurt really bad,
there's only one thing to do,

get back up.

[audience clap]

The rubble is mostly gone.

Sean's organization, cleaned
500,000 cubic meters.

He has carried off one
of the most successful

camp evacuations ever.

60,000 people moved from camp.

[audience claps]

- [gentle music]
- [thunder rumbles]

[Sean] I remember I
walked down the hill

and I see this incredible space,

this golf course that
they talked about.

I never understood how it
could have been a golf course.

It seemed like too
much of a hill,

but all of a sudden, now
the tents are all clear

and I'm seeing it.

And I see it for the first time.

I went back to that
first day in my head

and remembering all those
nights and the screaming

and the, sometimes the
violence and sometimes the party.

All the stuff that life is that
that camp had represented.

And those original volunteers

that had long since gone away.

All the experiences
that had been that camp.

There were people who told
us you'll never get it done,

all that but, that was big day.

Really, really big day.

There came a time when you
move from emergency relief

into development where yours
truly has to fire himself

because making movies and
emergencies are the same thing,

the stakes are different, but
when it came to development

you needed much more
knowledgeable, thoughtful

and patient people
than myself running it.

[Don] Roll sound.

Sound speeds.

Okay, good to go.

I remember after the
earthquake, when we were going

to all these meetings,

I was called on by the US
government to talk to Sean

because he was managing the
biggest displacement camp.

And I think they were
concerned about him

having enough support
and experience

and kind of help guide him on
ways that looking at the camp.

Sean was saying, you
know how he was worried

about the drainage
because it was very hilly,

and because of the rains
there was a lot of issues

with the tents getting flooded.

My boss very quickly
volunteered my team

to provide the heavy equipment,
to help with the drainage.

Which was very frustrating
because at the time

I did not take him seriously.

I did not think he was
gonna stay for very long.

I just figured he's
going to take pictures,

he's gonna do his thing
and then he's gonna leave

because that's what we had
been seeing of other people.

There is this natural competition
between organizations

that is so toxic.

And I think it was
just realizing that,

wait a second we're all
trying to do the same thing,

and if we don't work together
then what the fuck am I doing?

He was actually committed.

He was actually like on
the ground doing stuff.

That changed my
attitude towards him.

And then in 2015, Sean asked
me to join the organization.

I gave it maybe a week's
thought and quit my job at the UN

and jumped right on board.

And the first thing that
I did was to go with him

to COP 21 in France.

[gentle music]

Sean met with the
French president.

They discussed what the
biggest difficulties were

in Haiti and reforestation
and climate change

were the two biggest
things that they decided

were critically
important to address.

And the French president
said, "I'm gonna work with you."

"We're gonna allocate,
millions of dollars"

"towards reforestation."

We have a ten-year
plan to mobilize

a civilian conservation Corps,

to incentivize the protection
of trees by the resourcing

of agriculture.

When we presented this
to the French government

we presented it as a
dream, but we were greeted

with a relative acknowledgement

that it's no longer
time for dreaming.

With an initial plan
of a pledge from France

of a hundred million
dollars over 10 years

matched by the World Bank,
another hundred million

over 10 years and
then private funds,

we have Haiti Takes Root,

which is a massive
reforestation project.

We are here tonight with
you and by with you, I mean

with your commitment, we
share it to make this happen.

[Ann] Now, translating
that vision into reality

on the ground, however,
is a very different thing.

We've spent about $2 million
over the last two years

on getting actual physical
activities on the ground.

But we are the only ones
who've been spending money

because World Bank is not
allowed to spend money

except through the
Haitian government.

Given the political
situation in Haiti

that has been very difficult.

[TV reporter] Protesters
running from tear gas...

[gun shots]

...clashes with police,
barricades and fires.

These are the scenes of anger

paralyzing Haiti's largest
cities after more than a week

of deadly unrest.

The demonstrators are demanding

their president's resignation.

Many people are very
discouraged especially

if they in Port-au-Prince.

Haiti exists.

People exist, people
or in their community

they are surviving in
spite of the government,

not because of the government.

In many ways we are
going backwards,

instead of moving forward.

It's super frustrating,
but having worked, jeez,

14 years in Haiti, it's also
not surprising, unfortunately.

So we're gonna continue on
working with the farmers,

to grow more productive trees

and increase their
wages, their earnings

but Haiti Takes Root as
imagined is on hold for now.

This organization's
lifeblood is this gala.

We're trying to change
that, but for right now

it's very reliant on
this gala for funding.

It's what separates us out from

the majority of
organizations out there.

Welcome to the 5th
annual Help Haiti event.

[Ann] When we have
flexible funding

and we can spend it in ways
that most organizations can't,

it just means that we can
get work done on the ground

a lot quicker.

[TV reporter] Hurricane
Matthew slammed into Haiti

on Tuesday only now are we
starting to see the extent

of the damage.

And while the Capital
city largely dodged a bullet

there are some rural
areas here that are just

absolutely devastated and
fears remain for flooding,

mudslides and possibly cholera.

When hurricane Matthew
happened, we already

had our programs planned,

but philosophically,
we must respond.

[Ann] Our team who had
experience from the earthquake

jumped right in and went
into disaster response mode.

To be able to even
get medical, food,

any of those things anywhere
you need to have access.

So we did that immediately.

[woman speaks Creole]

You get to know the
community and you can see

what else is needed,
and they tell us,

okay we need money for this now,

and we need to do this next.

Our teams were all Haitian
and the local mayors

were saying you have no
idea how good it feels

to see one of our own
responding, speaking our language,

and it's amazing to see
that we're able to do this

for ourselves.

Haitians aren't just victims.

They're not just
like helpless people

that need help all the
time, they're bad-ass.

Food, water, all those
things are necessary.

That's short-term stuff

but let's start
investing immediately now

on things that are going to
prevent the next hurricane

to completely knock
out these communities.

So we had a $7
million annual budget

and we had raised $7 million.

And within five weeks we
spent $3 million responding

to Matthew.

That was an unforeseen cost.

[Don] Does that make
you wanna think about

scaling back or you
keep pushing forward?

Well, what I wanna to do

is I don't wanna leave
anybody high and dry,

including our employees,

and in the education
area, certainly not kids.

So we're just going to figure
out a way to keep it financed

as long as we have it.

If I can offload education onto

another philanthropic
organization

that we share a philosophy
with who will either improve it

or at least maintain it
as it is, I'll do that.

What I would like to be left
with is what we started with

because the storms
aren't gonna get less.

We're a humanitarian
emergency organization,

and to bring that outside
of Haiti is valuable.

When you look at the hurricane
belt of the United States

it's not rocket
science to know where

a lot of these
disasters are gonna hit.

It's basically the convergence
of poverty, racial inequality

and riskier areas that are
more prone to the elements.

What we're starting now
is our first pilot project

in Savannah, Georgia.

[indistinct chatter]

What we do is we go to
disadvantaged neighborhoods

and areas that have
serious racial tension

between the police
and the residents.

And you get the young men and
women from 16 to 25 years old

and start training them.

Today is graduation day
for our community emergency

response team program training.

I'm really excited.

[Sean] And working with the
governor and the universities.

Make it so that those credits
matter as university credits.

That the cert training is a
certification that matters,

that it has a presence
on a CV in getting a job.

Well, I think my
classmates are pretty proud

and excited that we get
to have this opportunity

to all be together and
accomplish something.

For me to graduate
out of this program

to give me the opportunities
that it's giving me,

it's a good feeling.

It means a lot to me
to help other people,

and to know that I can.

[Sean] If you have six
locations from Houston

to the Southern
Atlantic seaboard,

you've got the entire
hurricane belt covered

with trained young people.

[Trainee] Hands on the
wall, hands on the wall.

[Sean] And then if
the emergency happens

within say 250 miles, they
are obligated to deploy

to that area also.

First to their own community,

but if it doesn't
hit their community

then they can be
activated for other areas.

[TV reporter 1] Florence
raging ashore before dawn.

Hurricane-force winds
turning debris into projectiles.

[TV reporter 2] Fierce
winds and relentless waves

bearing down on the Carolinas.

We knew hurricane Florence
is gonna hit Robertson County

'cause it's the poorest county,

and it was in an area where
there this massive river

that flooded all the time.

We brought about 15 kids and
they spent a long weekend

just mucking out these
houses of families

that had water halfway
up their walls.

Thanks for coming in
this is absolutely huge

to have you all involved.

Couldn't be more
thankful that you're here

and let's get to work.

[Ann] Those kids worked
in the North Carolina heat

but we're just so happy and
excited to be doing something

and to put their
training to use.

They actually saw the impact
that they had on these families

who were so grateful who would
come by and bring them water

and just inspire them.

One, two, three cheese.

I felt a long time
ago that J/P HRO

is a name that only
Haitians and people in Haiti

can actually remember,
nobody ever gets it right.

Also in terms of the
direction we were going

we changed J/P HRO into CORE.

It's Community
Organized Relief Effort.

[thunder rumbling]

[TV reporter 3] We wanna
get right to hurricane Dorian

category five storm
hitting, The Bahamas,

heading for the Southeast.

Wind gusts of
200 miles per hour.

You can see what it's doing
here and off in the distance,

those waves crashing
against the pier.

[wind gusts]

[Ann] The Bahamas happens.

We have a relationship
with the mayor of San Juan,

where she sends out with us,
her team of search and rescue

and medical staff to
respond to an emergency.

So as soon as the
medical teams were done

then our teams brought
in the debris removal.

While we're doing that, we
have a team that's getting

businesses back up and running
again, as well as households

get cash to people so that
they can rebuild their lives.

We're not a massively
huge organization,

we have a lot of heart.

But here's the vision we're
gonna make this community

healthier, stronger,
and happier.

And we got to sell that
to other organizations

to inspire them, to just
throw in what they can.

[gentle music]

After so many years,
you just get numb to it.

You know, the same images,
you see all the destruction,

you hear the same stories, you
remember what you remember.

I think this one, because it's
10 years, hit me a lot harder

than it does usually.

Remembering the people
that you've left behind

and the life that
you left behind.

I see a lot of personality
driven organizations

that start out with big ideas

and a lot of energy
for fundraising

that gets real
tiring real quick,

and you'll see those
organizations close their doors.

We've been trying to
alleviate some of that pressure

from Sean.

He opens doors for us, for sure.

He is not as much a
deal closer anymore.

There's this story that I've
loved ever since I was a kid.

And it's about this guy
who comes into a village

and he's a vagabond,

and this village is
very, very suspicious.

Everyone runs into their
houses and closes their door

and he sets up in the
center of the village,

he pulls out his
stone and his pot

and he starts building a fire,

filling his pot up with
water, sticks a stone in,

and he's just cooking away.

The villages are very curious,

so they're coming out one by
one and they're asking him,

"What are you making?
What is that?"

"And he says, " This is
the most delicious soup

"that you will ever
taste. It is so hardy.

"You will never taste
anything like it"

"but it would just be even
better if we could add"

"a few more carrots in there."

The villager says, "I have
carrots, I'll bring some."

And then another villager
comes and he says,

"Oh it'd be so much better
if we just had onions."

And so at the end of it,
the vagabond actually makes

the most delicious
soup ever tasted.

To me, that is Sean.

He comes in with a fucking
bag and a fucking rock

and is like, "This is
the most amazing thing"

"we're gonna do ever."

And little by little
people make it happen.

[indistinct chatter]

[Sean] I'm just a guy who says,

"Okay, I think I can do this."

"I think I can do
something good here."

I don't fancy myself,

a good doer or a bad doer.
Like here's a project,

and I keep my head in there

'cause I have great
humanitarians that I work with.

Five times a month, I
say to myself out loud,

thank God that I went.

The life experience of it,

the people that I met, both
Haitian and non Haitian,

the things I learned about

that I never would
have understood.

I wouldn't miss this for
my life for anything.

There were so many people
whose names I won't remember

without whom J/P
HR would not exist.

Maybe tomorrow I'll
flash on a face and go,

"Oh, what was her name?
What was his name?"

They might've just done
one thing on one day

that changed everything
because we were an airplane

that built itself after takeoff.

And that's a perilous
ride in so many ways.

And how it ended up surviving
was the force of will

of hundreds of people.

We need citizen activism.

We need citizen participation.

And that's all I can claim
to be, is as a citizen

who tries to participate
and that's it.

[woman] Do you have
your glasses Sean?

I used to say about
directing a film

that at a certain point, you're
running down a train track

and now you're in a tunnel
and the trains coming

and you only have one choice,
you gotta keep running.

There's no room on
the sides, right?

For me, there were
two daylights.

There was the daylight came
after about nine months

which was a daylight
enough that said,

"I've got people here I can
trust to keep this going,"

and then there's that
most distant daylight

which is how to really feel
that we made a lasting impact

on people's lives.

[Don] You're optimistic?

Well I have no choice,
there's no choice.

I've told too many
people it's gonna work.

[laughs] I'm in the tunnel.

[Host] And now the
founder of CORE, Sean Penn.

[audience applaud]

♪ It's part of the attraction ♪

♪ You wanna be destroyed ♪

♪ And the spirit on the water ♪

♪ And you're the farmer's boy ♪

♪ When I heard your voice ♪

♪ At first I was annoyed ♪

♪ You woke me ♪

♪ From the beginning of time ♪

♪ I had so little grace ♪

♪ After while not a
freckle on your face ♪

♪ I was looking for the
rhyme in time and space ♪

♪ And you broke me ♪

♪ You are walking now naked
with your pants not on ♪

♪ At the gates of Eden
with no sins to pardon ♪

♪ It was Adam not Eve who
threw God out of the garden ♪

♪ You rock me ♪

♪ Let's not get clever
with this stuff ♪

♪ Well are you
ready to give up ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ When you're climbing rom
the wreckage of a burnout star ♪

♪ And the old neon looks
like the counting bar ♪

♪ Asked where I was going ♪

♪ I answered how
far you wanna go ♪

♪ American male,
teary-eyed knight ♪

♪ The cigarette smokers
going to find his light ♪

♪ If you repeat
it often enough ♪

♪ Wrong looks right ♪

♪ But deep down you know ♪

♪ The smooth will make
excuses for the rough ♪

♪ Yeah, no, it shouldn't
be this tough ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ Tell the oceans ♪

♪ Tell the sun ♪

♪ Tell the weatherman ♪

♪ Tell everyone ♪

♪ All money junkies are
running out of veins ♪

♪ If you're one
of them yourself ♪

♪ You got no one else to blame ♪

♪ You don't need any
more than you have ♪

♪ Except the shame
of feeling torn ♪

♪ Between the hungry
and the greedy ♪

♪ The hunted and the needy ♪

♪ If you wanted you can see me ♪

♪ When you serve the
poor you free me ♪

♪ Slaves have grown accustomed
to the weight of your chains ♪

♪ And your heads shone ♪

♪ Your eyes will find the
silence inside the hurricane ♪

♪ You know you must do
something other than complain ♪

♪ Or pray for mother Earth,
these are not more labor pains ♪

♪ Maybe you're being born ♪

♪ Out of the ash of the dust ♪

♪ The clever learn
who not to trust ♪

♪ The genius of belief
is that we must ♪

♪ Take a chance
sometimes on us ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪

♪ To find love ♪