Raoul Peck

Raoul Peck is a Haitian filmmaker, of both documentary and feature films, and a political activist. He is the former president of La Fémis, the French national film school, and the former Minister of Culture for Haiti.

Peck is known for using historical, political, and personal characters to tackle and recount societal issues and historical events. His film "I Am Not Your Negro," about the life of James Baldwin and race relations in the United States, was nominated for an Oscar and won a César Award in France. He won the Best Documentary prize at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival for "Fatal Assistance." Peck received international attention for "Lumumba," his fictionalized feature film about Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the period around the independence of the Belgian Congo in June 1960, as well as "The Young Karl Marx," about the friendship between Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of the Communist Manifesto. Peck's HBO documentary miniseries, "Exterminate All the Brutes" received a Peabody Award.

More recently, Peck directed and produced "Silver Dollar Road" for Amazon Studios, revolving around a family's land who becomes subject to harassment by land developers. He directed and produced "Ernest Cole: Lost and Found," about photographer Cole, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. He is in production on a documentary revolving around George Orwell as well as one revolving around the assassination of former Haitian president Jovenel Moïse.

Peck began his film career in 1986, when he created the film production company Velvet Film in Germany, which then produced or co-produced all of his documentaries, feature films and TV dramas. Peck initially developed short experimental works and socio-political documentaries, before moving on to feature films. His feature "L’Homme sur les quais" (The Man by the Shore; 1993) was the first Haitian film to be released in theaters in the United States. It was also selected for competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

A book of screenplays and images from four of Peck's major features and documentary films, called "Stolen Images," was published in February 2012 by Seven Stories Press.

Peck served as Minister of Culture in the Haitian government of Prime Minister Rosny Smarth (1996–97), ultimately resigning his post along with the Prime Minister and five other ministers in protest of Presidents Préval and Aristide. He detailed his experiences in this position in a book, "Monsieur le Ministre… jusqu'au bout de la patience."