Raoul Peck

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Raoul Peck decided to go back and take on the character of Patrice Lumumba with a feature film that was accessible to the public. Lumumba was released in 2000 and followed the pivotal story of Congolese leader, Patrice Lumumba. Peck used real images to unveil the "unwritten controversial history" of how Lumumba led the Republic of Congo towards its independence in 1960. [46] This was Peck's second film on Lumumba, the first was the documentary film, Lumumba, Death of a Prophet (1990).

When asked why he chose to direct a second film on Lumumba, Peck said, "... when I started research for the feature, I was writing pages and pages and I realized that I was writing for another film. I was creating a film about discovering my own family in Congo and my own memories in Congo. And I rediscovered pictures my mother took and 8mm films my father shot. So all of this brought up a lot for me and the documentary is an expression of my personal relationship to Congo. For me the documentary and the feature film are two different stories. And when I came back to the feature film it was a very direct confrontation with the man Lumumba himself." [15]

Lumumba received eight nominations and won three awards. It was also chosen to be in the Cannes Directors Fortnight. The film won Best Feature Film at the Acapulco Black Film Festival (2001) and the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (2001), and was the winning film in the United States’ ‘Peace’ category at the Political Film Society (2002). [47] Lumumba has a score of 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. [35]

Sometimes In April (2005)

This HBO English-language TV movie came out in 2005. In this war drama based on actual events, Raoul Peck describes Rwanda's 1994 massacre. A Hutu soldier (Idris Elba) fights for his family as they try to save themselves from being a part of the "almost 800,000 people" killed during the "uprising." [28]

After the success of Lumumba in the United States, TV channel HBO, who bought and broadcast the film (the first English dubbed airing in American television), offered Raoul Peck a project that would later become Hotel Rwanda (United Artists, produced by Terry George). Raoul Peck posed a certain number of generally "unacceptable" conditions in the United States. He hesitated to make the film because of "the lack of film infrastructure." [48] He wanted to be able to tell the story from the point of view of the Rwandan people and be able to shoot in Rwanda. Unexpectedly, Collin Collender, the President of HBO films, accepted all of his demands and the project began production. [49]

In 2001, while in Rwanda, Peck became overwhelmed and convinced of the need to react to the Rwandan Genocide. Peck then immersed himself in the story of Rwanda and studied multiple reports, books, documents and collected various testimonies to try to understand the Rwanda of today. [48]

Lumumba's success in Africa opened many doors for Raoul Peck, and he was able to shoot in Rwanda despite the initial difficulties (logistics, insurance, human resources). Peck said, "I felt we could make a film in which the Rwandan people can recognize themselves and participate at every level ... that it make sense to the people here first and then to the rest of the world…After many months here, we are convinced filming in Rwanda was the right thing to do…. every single line of this film, of the screenplay, is authentic and based on facts." [48]

The Rwandan people were the first to see the film because of the moral agreement that Raoul Peck concluded with them. An American studio even allowed the world premiere of Sometimes In April in African territory. Thousands of people watched two projections on a giant screen in the Kigali arena. "I could only imagine making this film if the Rwandans were the first to see it. Whatever the critics say does not matter to me. The only people whose judgment I would accept are the Rwandan people." [50]

In competition in Berlin, Sometimes in April, aired in the United States with huge success and was even broadcast by the national public chain, PBS, for free. This unique airing was made available to the public and followed by a panel discussion. [51]

Sometimes in April won "TV Program of the Year" at the AFI Awards (2006) and took home the award for 'Best Film' at the Durban International Film Festival (2005) in South Africa. [52]

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

In 2016, Peck directed a documentary film, I Am Not Your Negro, which follows author James Baldwin, as he used his "unfinished novel, Remember This House" to highlight the history of society's poor treatment of African Americans in the United States. In the film, Samuel L. Jackson narrates the story of African American struggles and constant oppression throughout time. The book and film highlight real letters and footage of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers to put into perspective the evolution of racism in the United States. [53] [54] Raoul Peck took about ten years to attain the rights to the film. [53]

The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award in the documentary category. [55] Shortly after, Magnolia Pictures and Amazon Studios acquired distribution rights to the film. [56] [57] It was released in the U.S. for an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run on 9 December 2016, before re-opening on 3 February 2017. [58] It received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature for the 89th Academy Awards but the award ultimately went to director Ezra Edelman for O.J.: Made in America . [59] [60] However, the successful film did win a César in France for Best Documentary Film in 2018. [5] Additionally, I Am Not Your Negro won an Emmy award in the "Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary" category in 2019. [5]

I Am Not Your Negro received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "I Am Not Your Negro offers an incendiary snapshot of James Baldwin's crucial observations on American race relations -- and a sobering reminder of how far we've yet to go." [61] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 96 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [62]

The Young Karl Marx (2017)

The Young Karl Marx was released on 2 March 2017, in Germany. The film is about the friendship between Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, authors of the Communist Manifesto, during their youth. [33] While the film follows Marx and Engels, women also play a part in the story. Jenny Marx, Karl Marx's wife, assisted with the final draft of the Manifesto. At the same time, Mary Burns, Engels' partner, played the role of mediator between the two philosophers in the film. [63]

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Raoul Peck highlighted Marx's influence throughout his education while growing up; "All I am today is because of the structure that I got when I was studying the work of Marx...At that time, in the 1970s and 1980s, you needed to confront yourself with those books because it is your past, it is your present." [64] When the interviewer asked Peck what research he used for the film, Peck mentioned that the letters between the characters in the film assisted in the creation of the film. "When you read the letters between Marx, Engels, [Marx's wife] Jenny and their friends, they're incredible. It's lively, it's funny, it's ironic. They were jokers with sharp tongues." [63]

The Young Karl Marx took home the Founders Grand Prize for 'best script' at the Traverse City Film Fest in 2017. Furthermore, it won "Best Movie" at the 2017 International Festival of Historical Film. [65] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 62% based on 50 reviews. [35]

Style and influences

Since the beginning of his career, Raoul Peck's filmography reflects an ensemble of films with a particular writing style. His subjects are historical, political, and personal characters. His work considers his fragmented biography (with the intellectual and economic conflicted perspective). It also structurally exploits the effectiveness of American cinema. In this way, he uses more complex approaches like collages, time overlay of the story, flash-forward, or flashback, the recurrent use of voice-over, the author, character, and the object point of view according to the needs of the project. These multiple approaches, both formal and structurally aesthetic, allow for the organic mix of politics, history, poetry, and the personal. [2]

On his writing process

Peck has often traveled abroad; he said that when he goes abroad he can find a sort of peace. It was hard being a black writer in America, but in other parts of the world he was way more accepted. Being away from the racism he experienced helped him to focus on his work.[ citation needed ]

Finding a writing partner (this task is difficult as is) with a biographical, philosophical, or a political profile that permits a common or complementary approach has always been a difficult process for Raoul Peck. Nonetheless, Peck found a match in screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer when writing The Young Karl Marx . He said, "The artistic challenge — and it took me ten years with Pascal to write this story — was the writing. That was the most difficult part. We were making a film about the evolution of an idea, which is impossible. To be able to have political discourse in a scene, and you can follow it, and it's not simplified, and it's historically true. This is the accomplishment." [66]

Peck had the opportunity to renew this type of collaboration in the United States with writer Russel Banks (with two ongoing projects).[ citation needed ]

On his interest in social issues

The documentary approach is similar to that of the fiction for Peck (voice-over, a mix of politics, history, memory, poetry). For that matter, whether it be Haitian Corner, Lumumba , Sometimes in April , or L'Affaire Villemin, the uses of reality, documents, and truthful and lived details, is constant. Simultaneously, his films' political and personal factors are affected by his interest in politics and social issues. He says, "I came into the film industry because of politics, because of content—not because I wanted to make Hollywood films." Peck wants to change the way people view history; he would like to make audiences feel and cause a reaction within them. During an interview with Professor Meryem Belkaïd at Bowdoin College in Maine, Peck stated, "Especially in America, cinema is an industry that claims that its purpose is entertainment … The tendency is to please the audience, it is not so much to provoke." With this in mind, Peck's goal is to create films that are meaningful. [67]

Personal life

Peck divides his time between Voorhees Township, New Jersey, U.S.; Paris, France; and Port-à-Piment, Haiti. [68]

Awards and accolades

Filmography

Feature films [72]

Raoul Peck
Raoul Peck Photo Call Der junge Karl Marx Berlinale 2017 04.jpg
Peck in 2017
Minister of Culture of Haiti
In office
March 1996 October 1997
YearOriginal title [72] English title [72] Credits [72]
1987-88Haitian Corner (Feature film, 1987–88)Director, Writer
1990 Lumumba: La mort du prophète (Documentary)Lumumba: Death of a ProphetDirector, Writer,

Producer, Editor

1993 L’Homme sur les quais (Feature)The Man by the ShoreDirector, Writer
1994Desounen: Dialogue avec la mort (Documentary)Desounen: Dialogue with DeathDirector
1994Haïti - Le silence des chiens (Documentary)Haiti - Silence of the DogsDirector
1997Documenta X - Die Filme (Documentary)Director
2000 Lumumba (Feature film)Director, Writer,  Producer
2001Le profit et rien d’autre! (Documentary)Profit & Nothing But! Or Impolite Thoughts on the Class StruggleDirector, Editor
2005 Sometimes in April (Feature film)Director, Writer,

Executive Producer

2013Assistance mortelle (Documentary)Fatal AssistanceDirector, Writer (concept),

Producer

2014 Meurtre a Pacot (Feature film)Murder in PacotDirector, Writer, Producer
2016 I Am Not Your Negro (Documentary)Director, Writer (scenario),

Producer

2017 Le jeune Karl Marx (Feature film)The Young Karl Marx [73] Director, Writer,

Producer, Actor (uncredited)

2023 Silver Dollar Road (Documentary)-Director, producer
2024 Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (Documentary)-Director, producer

Short films [72]

YearOriginal title [72] English titleCredits [72]
1982De Cuba traigo un cantar-Director
1983Exzerpt-Director
1983Leugt-Director
1984The Minister of the Interior is On Our Side-Director
1984Merry Christmas Deutschland-Director, Writer,

Editor, Cinematographer

1997Chère Catherine-Director, Writer
2010On bosse ici! On vit ici! On reste ici-Director

Television [72]

YearOriginal title [72] English title [72] Credits [72]
1998Corps plongés (TV movie)It's Not About LoveDirector, Writer
2006L’Affaire Villemin (TV series, six parts)-Director, Writer
2008L’école du Pouvoir (TV Movie)-Director, Writer
2005 Sometimes In April (TV Movie)-Director, Writer,

Executive Producer

2009 Moloch Tropical (TV Movie)-Director, Writer, Producer
2021 Exterminate All the Brutes (TV docu-series)-Director, Writer, Producer

Publications

See also

References

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Further reading

Baldwin, J, Peck, R, Strauss, A, (2017). I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck. Vintage International. ISBN   978-0-525-43469-6

Pressley-Sannon, Toni (2015). Raoul Peck: Power, Politics, and the Cinematic Imagination. LEXINGTON BOOKS. ISBN   978-0-7391-9878-0

Velvet Film Company