Raoul Peck, Oscar-Nominated for ‘I Am Not Your Negro,’ to Be Honored at Visions du Réel
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, who was Oscar-nominated for “I Am Not Your Negro,” will be the Guest of Honor at the 56th edition of documentary festival Visions du Réel, which runs April 4-13. During the festival, Peck will deliver a masterclass and present a retrospective of his work, as well as a screening of his latest feature film, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found.” Emilie Bujès, the festival’s artistic director, said Peck’s work was of “exceptional political impact and cinematographic force.” She added, his films are “inextricably linked to an alternative and engaged way of thinking about the world and its history, embodied by key figures which he has invariably made part of inspiring, precisely articulated and highly literary forms.” In a statement, the festival noted that his films “examine denials from official Western history, shining a light on aspects ignored by this account, often sketching a portrait of politicians or artists who have openly deconstructed it,” such as Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba in 1990’s “Lumumba, La Mort du prophète” and “Lumumba” in 2000, writer James Baldwin in “I Am Not Your Negro” in 2016, and, most recently, Ernest Cole with last year’s “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found.” Peck’s work is “a reinvention of activist cinema, which he transforms using a cinematographic, poetic and highly subjective language, freely intermingling genres and formats,” the festival said.