On February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Raoul Peck awaits the announcement of the Oscar for Best Documentary. “I Am Not Your Negro” is among the five nominated films. It will not win the Oscar, which goes to O.J.: “Made in America”, but this event confirms the Haitian filmmaker’s place among the leading voices in global documentary filmmaking.
A Childhood Spent Between Haiti and the Congo
Raoul Peck was born on September 9, 1953, in Port-au-Prince. When he was eight years old, his family left Haiti during the dictatorship of François Duvalier and moved to the newly independent Congo. His father, an agronomist, worked there as part of a United Nations mission. His childhood in the Congo had a lasting impact on his worldview. It exposed him to the consequences of colonization, the hopes for African independence, and the legacy of Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated in January 1961. Lumumba would later become one of the central themes of his work.
Raoul Peck continued his studies in Brooklyn, then in France, and later in Germany. In Berlin, he studied economics and engineering before turning to film. He enrolled at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB), from which he graduated in 1988. He also founded Velvet Film, the company that will support many of its projects.
"Haitian Corner," Raoul Peck's first project
His first feature film, “Haitian Corner”, made in 1988, follows a Haitian exile in New York who is haunted by the torture he endured under the dictatorship. When he thinks he recognizes one of his former torturers in Brooklyn, the past comes crashing back into his life. The film already contains the defining features of his cinema: a political story told from an intimate perspective, a focus on exiles, and a rejection of folklore. In Raoul Peck’s work, great tragedies never remain abstract. They permeate bodies, families, and memories.
This method continues with “Lumumba”, The Death of the Prophet” in 1991, “The Man on the Docks” screened in competition at Cannes in 1993, and then “Lumumba” in 2000. “Sometimes in April”, aired on HBO in 2005, addresses the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. “Fatal Assistance”, published in 2013, examines the failures of international aid following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Eighteen months at the Ministry of Culture
Raoul Peck’s career is not limited to film sets. In 1996, Prime Minister Rosny Smarth appointed him Haiti’s Minister of Culture. He held this position for about eighteen months, during a period of intense institutional tensions. When Rosny Smarth’s government resigned in 1997, he also stepped down from his post. This experience gave him firsthand knowledge of the government and power dynamics. He recounts it in “Mr. Minister… my patience has run out.”
This foray into politics has deepened his interest in the mechanisms that shape official narratives, obscure certain responsibilities, and marginalize certain populations from the historical record.
"I Am Not Your Negro", a global turning point
The major turning point came in 2016 with “I Am Not Your Negro”. The documentary is based on “Remember This House”, an unfinished manuscript in which James Baldwin set out to tell the stories of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., three figures of the civil rights movement who were assassinated. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the film combines archival footage, film clips, Baldwin’s writings, and contemporary images. Raoul Peck does not present a traditional biography. Instead, he connects the writer’s words to the history of racism in the United States and the portrayals produced by Hollywood.
Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2016, the documentary won the Audience Award in its category. A few months later, it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary. That year, four of the five selected films were directed by Black filmmakers. “I Am Not Your Negro” went on to win the César Award for Best Documentary Film in 2018. This success is also due to an approach that has become characteristic of Raoul Peck: creating a dialogue between archival footage and the present, questioning those who create the images, and placing the absent at the center of the narrative.
Nine years as president of La Fémis
From 2010 to 2019, Raoul Peck served as chair of the board of directors of La Fémis, one of France’s leading public film schools. Under his leadership, the school launched La Résidence, a program designed to make training accessible to young filmmakers who have not followed the traditional academic path.
This role builds on another aspect of his work: passing on his knowledge. Having built his career across several countries and cinematic traditions, he is also helping to broaden access to cinema.
Cinema as a Way to Fight Forgetting
The following films continue this engagement with history. ““The Young Karl Marx”, released in 2017, explores the intellectual development of Marx and Engels. “Exterminate All the Brutes”, a miniseries that aired in 2021, connects colonialism, slavery, and genocidal violence. Silver Dollar Road, in 2023, follows an African American family threatened with losing their land. In 2024, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” is receiving “The Golden Eye“ at the Cannes Film Festival. The documentary traces the career of South African photographer Ernest Cole, who captured the daily violence of apartheid. “Orwell: 2+2=5”, presented at Cannes in 2025, then reinterprets George Orwell’s work in the context of propaganda and political lies.
At age 72, Raoul Peck is also working on a documentary exploring the circumstances leading up to the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021. This project brings his focus back to Haiti, his homeland and a constant point of reference in his work. His films do not present a static memory. He draws on archival footage, texts, and lives that dominant narratives have simplified or sidelined. By making the documentary a space for the confrontation between past and present, Raoul Peck reminds us that an image can also challenge the official history. After Lumumba, Baldwin, Cole, and Orwell, whose memory will he choose next to bring back into the center of the frame?
Raoul Peck is a Haitian filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer born in 1953 in Port-au-Prince. His journey through Haiti, the Congo, the United States, France, and Germany has shaped a body of work dedicated to colonization, racism, exile, and marginalized historical narratives. He also served as Haiti’s Minister of Culture from 1996 to 1997, and as chairman of the board of directors of La Fémis from 2010 to 2019.
Released in 2016, *I Am Not Your Negro” is based on “Remember This House”, an unfinished manuscript by writer James Baldwin. The documentary connects the lives of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. to the history of racism and the portrayal of Black people in the United States. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2017 and won the César Award for Best Documentary Film in 2018.
Haiti plays a central role in Raoul Peck’s life and work. Born in Port-au-Prince, he left the country as a child, but several of his films directly explore Haiti’s political and social history. Haitian Corner evokes the trauma left behind by François Duvalier’s dictatorship, while Fatal Assistance He is analyzing the impact of international aid following the 2010 earthquake. He is also working on a documentary about the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
