Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck and Canadian cinematographer Iris Ng will be honoured at the 25th edition of Canada’s documentary festival Hot Docs (April 30 – May 1).
Peck, best known for the Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, will be presented with the outstanding achievement award. His other credits include Lumumba, HBO miniseries Exterminate All The Brutes and most recently Silver Dollar Road.
A selection of Peck’s work will be shown at the festival where the director will participate in several post-screening Q&a’s.
Previous recipients of the outstanding achievement award include Werner Herzog, Patricio Guzmán and Tony Palmer.
Peck, best known for the Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, will be presented with the outstanding achievement award. His other credits include Lumumba, HBO miniseries Exterminate All The Brutes and most recently Silver Dollar Road.
A selection of Peck’s work will be shown at the festival where the director will participate in several post-screening Q&a’s.
Previous recipients of the outstanding achievement award include Werner Herzog, Patricio Guzmán and Tony Palmer.
- 3/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Distributing films by Todd Haynes, Guy Maddin, Abbas Kiarostami, Laura Poitras, Olivier Assayas, and even Jacques Demy, Zeitgeist Film has been one of the most vital caretakers of independent and international cinema in the last few decades. Founded in New York City in 1988 by Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, they will now get a well-deserved celebration at NYC’s Metrograph beginning this Friday, November 3, with the series Zeitgeist Films at 35, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer.
Along with Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep, Todd Haynes’ Poison, Derek Jarman’s The Garden, Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry, Atom Egoyan’s Speaking Parts, and Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg (released in a new restoration by Zeitgeist in 1996), the series features premieres of new 4K remasters of Guy Maddin’s Archangel and Marc Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, plus an exclusive series closing night Member Preview of...
Along with Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep, Todd Haynes’ Poison, Derek Jarman’s The Garden, Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry, Atom Egoyan’s Speaking Parts, and Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg (released in a new restoration by Zeitgeist in 1996), the series features premieres of new 4K remasters of Guy Maddin’s Archangel and Marc Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, plus an exclusive series closing night Member Preview of...
- 10/31/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Neon has acquired the North American rights to Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning director, Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) documentary Orwell, the definitive feature-length documentary on visionary author George Orwell, with the exclusive cooperation of the Orwell Estate.
Producers include Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Productions, Raoul Peck for Velvet Films, and Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content. Stacey Offman and Richard Perello will executive produce for Jigsaw. Zhang Xin, Joey Marra, and William Horberg will executive produce for Closer Media, alongside Jessica Grimshaw, Dawn Olmstead, and David Levine of Anonymous, and Jeff Skoll and Courtney Sexton of Participant. Johnny Fewings of Universal Pictures Content Group will serve as executive producer on the film, which is currently in production.
“’Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…,’ wrote Orwell in his novel, 1984. Today, the “newspeak” of authoritarian rule is alive and well and in unexpected places,...
Producers include Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Productions, Raoul Peck for Velvet Films, and Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content. Stacey Offman and Richard Perello will executive produce for Jigsaw. Zhang Xin, Joey Marra, and William Horberg will executive produce for Closer Media, alongside Jessica Grimshaw, Dawn Olmstead, and David Levine of Anonymous, and Jeff Skoll and Courtney Sexton of Participant. Johnny Fewings of Universal Pictures Content Group will serve as executive producer on the film, which is currently in production.
“’Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…,’ wrote Orwell in his novel, 1984. Today, the “newspeak” of authoritarian rule is alive and well and in unexpected places,...
- 3/8/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
French Institute season to celebrate the work of Raoul Peck. To accompany the release of Oscar nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, the French Institute in Edinburgh is screening six of director Raoul Peck’s previous films throughout April and May.
The season entitled Raoul Peck, Chronicles of an Exile explores Peck’s trajectory from Haiti, where he was borned, to the newly formed Democratic Republic of the Congo and on to France.
Peck’s filmography is tainted by the memory of the painful exile from Haiti, fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship in 1961 (The Man On The Shore), only to arrive in the newly independent Congo which would see its Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba assassinated in the months following Peck’s move (Lumumba and Lumumba, The Death Of A Prophet). From New-York (Haitian Corner) to Kinshasa (Lumumba, The Death Of A Prophet), Peck portrays the immigrants and the misplaced. His...
The season entitled Raoul Peck, Chronicles of an Exile explores Peck’s trajectory from Haiti, where he was borned, to the newly formed Democratic Republic of the Congo and on to France.
Peck’s filmography is tainted by the memory of the painful exile from Haiti, fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship in 1961 (The Man On The Shore), only to arrive in the newly independent Congo which would see its Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba assassinated in the months following Peck’s move (Lumumba and Lumumba, The Death Of A Prophet). From New-York (Haitian Corner) to Kinshasa (Lumumba, The Death Of A Prophet), Peck portrays the immigrants and the misplaced. His...
- 4/4/2017
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In cooperation with Berlinale Panorama, Berlinale Special and dffb: A conversation between Raoul Peck and Ben Gibson.Raoul Peck and Ben Gibson
Acclaimed Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck has created a body of work in documentary and fiction distinguished by its critical engagement and intellectual courage. Taking on such specters of postcolonial injustice as underdevelopment, racism and communal violence, Peck’s films illuminate the personal stories and contradictory experiences of those individuals often treated by history and cinema as faceless, invisible, silent. This year’s Berlinale features two new Peck films: the fictional “The Young Karl Marx” in Berlinale Special and the Academy Award-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro,” a documentary based on an unfinished manuscript by James Baldwin in Panorama. In the 50th year of the dffb, Peck, a graduate of the Berlin film school, reflects on his cinematic journey with Ben Gibson dffb’s first non-German director of the school.
Acclaimed Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck has created a body of work in documentary and fiction distinguished by its critical engagement and intellectual courage. Taking on such specters of postcolonial injustice as underdevelopment, racism and communal violence, Peck’s films illuminate the personal stories and contradictory experiences of those individuals often treated by history and cinema as faceless, invisible, silent. This year’s Berlinale features two new Peck films: the fictional “The Young Karl Marx” in Berlinale Special and the Academy Award-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro,” a documentary based on an unfinished manuscript by James Baldwin in Panorama. In the 50th year of the dffb, Peck, a graduate of the Berlin film school, reflects on his cinematic journey with Ben Gibson dffb’s first non-German director of the school.
- 2/22/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
There’s a specter haunting Europe — the specter of mediocre biopics. A straightforward period piece about the life and times of a radical man, Raoul Peck’s “The Young Karl Marx” is well-furnished and fitfully gripping stuff, but it desperately lacks the full-bodied fervor that crackles throughout his Oscar-nominated documentary “I Am Not Your Negro.”
Snagged between the hard-nosed history of “Lumumba” (Peck’s sobering 2000 docudrama about the first prime minister of the Congo) and the jocular gusto of “Shakespeare in Love,” this immaculately furnished film sacrifices too much drama in order to expound upon its characters’ ideals, and sacrifices too much exploration of those ideals in order to accommodate for a healthy degree of drama. “I’m done fighting with needles,” Marx says, “I want a sledgehammer.” Peck opts for a safety net, ensuring that even the most electric moments never feel like they’re risking a challenge to...
Snagged between the hard-nosed history of “Lumumba” (Peck’s sobering 2000 docudrama about the first prime minister of the Congo) and the jocular gusto of “Shakespeare in Love,” this immaculately furnished film sacrifices too much drama in order to expound upon its characters’ ideals, and sacrifices too much exploration of those ideals in order to accommodate for a healthy degree of drama. “I’m done fighting with needles,” Marx says, “I want a sledgehammer.” Peck opts for a safety net, ensuring that even the most electric moments never feel like they’re risking a challenge to...
- 2/12/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
An intellectually rigorous but stylistically staid peep at the 20-something author of Capital and The Communist Manifesto, Raoul Peck’s The Young Karl Marx is at once historically impeccable and a filmic disappointment. Having just made a stunningly inventive documentary on James Baldwin, the Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro, Peck is a director at the height of his creative powers. But here six years of prep and a legendary subject have led to a surprisingly straight piece of biography shot in a classic style. Coming from the director of the unforgettable Lumumba (2000), which chronicled the rise and assassination of...
- 2/12/2017
- by Deborah Young
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"There are days, this is one of them, when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it. How precisely you're going to reconcile yourself to your situation here and how you are going to communicate to the vast, heedless, unthinking, cruel white majority that you are here. I'm terrified at the moral apathy – the death of the heart – which is happening in my country. These people have deluded themselves for so long that they really don't think I’m human."
Those words,...
Those words,...
- 2/3/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Every year, IndieWire asks the Toronto Film Festival’s ace documentary programmer, Thom Powers, to dig into the new lineup. The doc czar’s influence extends beyond Toronto to IFC Center’s Stranger than Fiction series, The SundanceNow Doc Club, and November’s influential festival Doc NYC, which selects the infamous Short List, many of which head for Oscar contention.
This year, the Tiff doc program (September 8-18) numbers 37 titles. It’s led by four veterans — Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, and Werner Herzog—big names who will pull audiences, playing alongside newcomers who will benefit from the Tiff spotlight. Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio have made a new documentary that they hope will push the needle on climate change. Netflix boasts four high-profile offerings likely to factor in the always intense doc Oscar race. And there’s a plethora of new titles that await discovery — and buyers.
Read...
This year, the Tiff doc program (September 8-18) numbers 37 titles. It’s led by four veterans — Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, and Werner Herzog—big names who will pull audiences, playing alongside newcomers who will benefit from the Tiff spotlight. Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio have made a new documentary that they hope will push the needle on climate change. Netflix boasts four high-profile offerings likely to factor in the always intense doc Oscar race. And there’s a plethora of new titles that await discovery — and buyers.
Read...
- 8/11/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Every year, IndieWire asks the Toronto Film Festival’s ace documentary programmer, Thom Powers, to dig into the new lineup. The doc czar’s influence extends beyond Toronto to IFC Center’s Stranger than Fiction series, The SundanceNow Doc Club, and November’s influential festival Doc NYC, which selects the infamous Short List, many of which head for Oscar contention.
This year, the Tiff doc program (September 8-18) numbers 37 titles. It’s led by four veterans — Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, and Werner Herzog—big names who will pull audiences, playing alongside newcomers who will benefit from the Tiff spotlight. Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio have made a new documentary that they hope will push the needle on climate change. Netflix boasts four high-profile offerings likely to factor in the always intense doc Oscar race. And there’s a plethora of new titles that await discovery — and buyers.
Read...
This year, the Tiff doc program (September 8-18) numbers 37 titles. It’s led by four veterans — Steve James, Raoul Peck, Errol Morris, and Werner Herzog—big names who will pull audiences, playing alongside newcomers who will benefit from the Tiff spotlight. Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio have made a new documentary that they hope will push the needle on climate change. Netflix boasts four high-profile offerings likely to factor in the always intense doc Oscar race. And there’s a plethora of new titles that await discovery — and buyers.
Read...
- 8/11/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Shadow & Act has learned exclusively that Zeitgeist Films - the distribution company responsible for the releases of a few critically-acclaimed S&A highlight titles (like Raoul Peck's Lumumba, and Carl Deal & Tia Lessin's Katrina documentary Trouble The Water), has acquired all U.S. rights (excluding first window television) to Jason Osder’s powerful feature film directorial debut, Let The Fire Burn, a film that gives audiences an unbiased and thorough account of the incidents leading up to, and during the 1985 standoff between the radical African American Move organization and Philadelphia authorities. The widely-unfamiliar story goes... On...
- 7/15/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...
- 6/28/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
It's unfortunate that his excellent Moloch Tropical isn't yet readily available for rent here in the USA. You can buy it from Sankofa.com for $30, but it's not really available widely, and definitely not as a Netflix rental. His Lumumba (which was really my intro to his work, about a decade ago) is far more accessible however. Anyway... the details on the above call for papers follows, from Toni Pressley-Sanon in the Department of Transnational Studies at the University at Buffalo, and Sophie Saint-Just in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Fordham University. The critically acclaimed filmmaker, Raoul Peck, has a long and...
- 11/9/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Today in history... September 7, 1997... Congo/Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, died in exile in Morocco, from prostate cancer. On film, you'll find Mobutu (played by Alex Descas) in Raoul Peck's highly-recommended 2000 film, Lumumba - the story of the rise to power and brutal assassination of the formerly vilified and later redeemed leader of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Mobutu isn't prominently featured, as it is Lumumba's story; the film ends with Mobutu seizing power and taking control of the region, on September 14, 1960, in a coup backed by the American CIA (Lumumba was eventually assassinated, as the film...
- 9/7/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The story of the iconic African leader rushes a bit, though it's through history so dramatic it's hard to contain in a movie
Entertainment grade: B
History grade: B+
Independence leader Patrice Lumumba became the first prime minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo when Belgian imperial rule ended in 1960. He was soon deposed in a military coup. Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko) took power.
Politics
Patrice Lumumba (Eriq Ebouaney) travels to Léopoldville, capital of what was then the Belgian Congo, to work as a beer salesman. One of his first customers is Joseph Mobutu (Alex Descas), who becomes a friend and ally. This was director Raoul Peck's second Lumumba movie, after a 1992 documentary, Lumumba: Death of a Prophet, which may explain why he gallops at breakneck speed through the material. It's not often the viewer feels a historical film should actually be longer,...
Entertainment grade: B
History grade: B+
Independence leader Patrice Lumumba became the first prime minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo when Belgian imperial rule ended in 1960. He was soon deposed in a military coup. Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko) took power.
Politics
Patrice Lumumba (Eriq Ebouaney) travels to Léopoldville, capital of what was then the Belgian Congo, to work as a beer salesman. One of his first customers is Joseph Mobutu (Alex Descas), who becomes a friend and ally. This was director Raoul Peck's second Lumumba movie, after a 1992 documentary, Lumumba: Death of a Prophet, which may explain why he gallops at breakneck speed through the material. It's not often the viewer feels a historical film should actually be longer,...
- 6/14/2012
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
The Croissette was slick with rain again on Sunday night for the 65th Cannes Film Festival's closing ceremony, which one colleague joked was a tribute to the 1964 Palme d'Or winner The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière, this year's jury was led by president Nanni Moretti, the Italian filmmaker whose Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope) screened in 2011's main competition. Moretti's jury also included actor Ewan McGregor, The Descendants writer-director Alexander Payne, Inglourious Basterds actress Diane Krueger, British auteur Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank), Palestinian actress-filmmaker Hiam Abbass (The Visitor), French actress Emmanuelle Davos (Kings & Queen), Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck (Lumumba), and designer Jean-Paul Gaultier in the wild-card slot. For this writer, comfortably dry and watching the awards on TV at a nearby flat, that nine-member think tank's choices proved parochial, or at least yawn-stifingly uninspired, but that reaction might be because the competition's four best films—Leo Carax's Holy Motors,...
- 5/28/2012
- MovieMaker.com
We have no right to speak in the name of others without legitimacy. Africa, for example, often serves as a backdrop in movies. Yet we see nothing of Africa, we don’t understand its problems. I think that we must get accustomed, and accustom our audiences, to other viewpoints. To adopt this stance, we must understand their problems, put ourselves in their shoes and, with certain humility, give them a voice. The cinema should be conceived in that way. Otherwise it remains a power trip. It is just a question of being ethically and politically sound. Words from Raoul Peck, the Haitian filmmaker (Lumumba, Moloch Tropical, Sometimes In April) in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival...
- 5/24/2012
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
Ewan McGregor and Andrea Arnold provide British presence on nine-strong panel tasked with selecting Palme d'Or winner
Shortly after declaring the lineup for its official selection, the Cannes film festival has announced the jury for its 2012 edition, whose job it will be to pick the winner of the Palme d'Or.
Joining Nanni Moretti, whose presidency of the jury was announced in January, will be four men and four women, with the usual mix of star glamour and serious-minded cinephilia.
Two of the jurors are British: actor Ewan McGregor and writer-director Andrea Arnold. The latter, particularly, owes much to Cannes' influence, as her first two films, Red Road and Fish Tank, both won the third place jury prize (in 2006 and 2009) after competing for the Palme d'Or.
France has supplied veteran actor Emmanuelle Devos, probably best known internationally for the 2001 thriller Read My Lips, and eccentric designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne...
Shortly after declaring the lineup for its official selection, the Cannes film festival has announced the jury for its 2012 edition, whose job it will be to pick the winner of the Palme d'Or.
Joining Nanni Moretti, whose presidency of the jury was announced in January, will be four men and four women, with the usual mix of star glamour and serious-minded cinephilia.
Two of the jurors are British: actor Ewan McGregor and writer-director Andrea Arnold. The latter, particularly, owes much to Cannes' influence, as her first two films, Red Road and Fish Tank, both won the third place jury prize (in 2006 and 2009) after competing for the Palme d'Or.
France has supplied veteran actor Emmanuelle Devos, probably best known internationally for the 2001 thriller Read My Lips, and eccentric designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne...
- 4/25/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Ava DuVernay on the set of I Will Follow
Ava DuVernay first caught my attention when she guest blogged at indieWire posting a piece titled, “What Color is Indie” I had seen her documentary film My Mic Sounds Nice and heard nothing but good things about I Will Follow (yes, named for the U2 song)– her first narrative film, but when I read what she had to say, she had my full attention and I wanted to know more about the woman behind the films and Affrm (African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement). I Will Follow is the first theatrical release from the black distribution collective and will be released on DVD Tuesday August 23, 2011. I met up with the funny, friendly and passionate Ava for brunch in Echo Park (a neighborhood in Los Angeles) to talk about her work.
Where did the story for I Will Follow come from?
It’s...
Ava DuVernay first caught my attention when she guest blogged at indieWire posting a piece titled, “What Color is Indie” I had seen her documentary film My Mic Sounds Nice and heard nothing but good things about I Will Follow (yes, named for the U2 song)– her first narrative film, but when I read what she had to say, she had my full attention and I wanted to know more about the woman behind the films and Affrm (African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement). I Will Follow is the first theatrical release from the black distribution collective and will be released on DVD Tuesday August 23, 2011. I met up with the funny, friendly and passionate Ava for brunch in Echo Park (a neighborhood in Los Angeles) to talk about her work.
Where did the story for I Will Follow come from?
It’s...
- 8/23/2011
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent
I profiled this French zombie flick, titled La Horde, back in May.
Soon thereafter, IFC’s new genre label, IFC Midnight, acquired it for distribution, with plans to premiere the film simultaneously in theaters and on VOD in August, with an eventual DVD release later.
Well… it’s later.
A quick recap… You should remember Eriq Ebouaney… his highest profile role likely being in Raoul Peck’s wonderful 2000 film Lumumba, as the titular character.
In, La Horde (The Horde), co-directed by Frenchmen Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocherhe, Ebouaney leads a pack of crooked cops and malevolent gangsters in a life/death battle against a horde of the walking dead – aka zombies.
Stuck on the top floor of a deserted high-rise block, in this gruesome, tight, action-packed, claustrophobic tale of retribution and escape, two opposing groups (the crooked cops and the gangsters) find that they are not alone in the lair of bloodthirsty corridors of death.
Soon thereafter, IFC’s new genre label, IFC Midnight, acquired it for distribution, with plans to premiere the film simultaneously in theaters and on VOD in August, with an eventual DVD release later.
Well… it’s later.
A quick recap… You should remember Eriq Ebouaney… his highest profile role likely being in Raoul Peck’s wonderful 2000 film Lumumba, as the titular character.
In, La Horde (The Horde), co-directed by Frenchmen Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocherhe, Ebouaney leads a pack of crooked cops and malevolent gangsters in a life/death battle against a horde of the walking dead – aka zombies.
Stuck on the top floor of a deserted high-rise block, in this gruesome, tight, action-packed, claustrophobic tale of retribution and escape, two opposing groups (the crooked cops and the gangsters) find that they are not alone in the lair of bloodthirsty corridors of death.
- 3/4/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
In 2004, filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Salaam Bombay!, Mississipi Masala & others) founded Maisha Film Labs - a Uganda-based film training initiative by (not-so unlike the Sundance Film Festival’s filmmaker labs, or the Ifp’s filmmaker labs).
The goal of the Maisha Film Labs is to give aspiring filmmakers in the East African country the tools & knowledge they currently lack, to tell their own stories through film, which would then help foster a self-sustaining film industry in Uganda and vicinity, that will support and represent the interests of local audiences.
So, why Uganda? Well… Mira Nair’s award-winning 1991 film, Mississipi Masala (which starred Denzel Washington, by the way, and probably my favorite of all her films), was shot, on location in Kampala, Uganda! And, it’s also in Uganda, in 1988, that she met her husband, scholar, Mahmood Mamdani, while she was doing research for the film.
The first Maisha workshop...
The goal of the Maisha Film Labs is to give aspiring filmmakers in the East African country the tools & knowledge they currently lack, to tell their own stories through film, which would then help foster a self-sustaining film industry in Uganda and vicinity, that will support and represent the interests of local audiences.
So, why Uganda? Well… Mira Nair’s award-winning 1991 film, Mississipi Masala (which starred Denzel Washington, by the way, and probably my favorite of all her films), was shot, on location in Kampala, Uganda! And, it’s also in Uganda, in 1988, that she met her husband, scholar, Mahmood Mamdani, while she was doing research for the film.
The first Maisha workshop...
- 1/14/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
A film I’ve been touting on this blog since seeing it last December, is available on DVD, for those who missed past screenings (Click Here to read my review).
Moloch Tropical, the latest from Raoul Peck (Lumumba), shot entirely in Haiti, wasn’t and still hasn’t been given a proper theatrical release, and, frankly, I’m not so sure it will at this point – specifically here in the USA. And that’s unfortunate – especially in this climate of homogenized, uninspired cinema.
It screened 4 times in New York City alone, and I posted each event on this blog, so I certainly hope some of you made the effort to check it out!
It deserves to be seen on the big screen, but, since that opportunity is likely unlikely to happen for most of you, may I suggest you pick up a copy for yourself right now, Here, for about $40. Yes,...
Moloch Tropical, the latest from Raoul Peck (Lumumba), shot entirely in Haiti, wasn’t and still hasn’t been given a proper theatrical release, and, frankly, I’m not so sure it will at this point – specifically here in the USA. And that’s unfortunate – especially in this climate of homogenized, uninspired cinema.
It screened 4 times in New York City alone, and I posted each event on this blog, so I certainly hope some of you made the effort to check it out!
It deserves to be seen on the big screen, but, since that opportunity is likely unlikely to happen for most of you, may I suggest you pick up a copy for yourself right now, Here, for about $40. Yes,...
- 12/9/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
A film I’ve been touting on this blog since seeing it last December, is available on DVD (Click Here to read my review), for those who missed past screenings.
Moloch Tropical, the latest from Raoul Peck (Lumumba), shot entirely in Haiti, hasn’t yet been given a proper theatrical release, and, frankly, I’m not so sure it will at this point – specifically here in the USA.
It’s already screened 4 times in New York City alone, and the upcoming screenings listed on the production company’s website don’t list any future USA play dates.
Some upcoming festival screenings of the film include:
- Festival du Film Francophone d’Angoulême (France, August 25th – 28th)
- Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival (September 22nd – October 5th)
- Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (Belgium, October 1st – 8th)
- Oslo Film From the South (Norway, October 7th – 17th )
- Restrospective of...
Moloch Tropical, the latest from Raoul Peck (Lumumba), shot entirely in Haiti, hasn’t yet been given a proper theatrical release, and, frankly, I’m not so sure it will at this point – specifically here in the USA.
It’s already screened 4 times in New York City alone, and the upcoming screenings listed on the production company’s website don’t list any future USA play dates.
Some upcoming festival screenings of the film include:
- Festival du Film Francophone d’Angoulême (France, August 25th – 28th)
- Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival (September 22nd – October 5th)
- Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (Belgium, October 1st – 8th)
- Oslo Film From the South (Norway, October 7th – 17th )
- Restrospective of...
- 9/9/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Today in history… September 7, 1997… Congo/Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, died in exile in Morocco, from prostate cancer.
On film, you’ll find Mobutu (played by Alex Descas) in Raoul Peck’s 2000 film, Lumumba - the story of the rise to power and brutal assassination of the formerly vilified and later redeemed leader of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba – a film that’s been previously mentioned on this blog. Mobutu isn’t prominently featured, as it is Lumumba’s story; the film ends with Mobutu seizing power and taking control of the region, on September 14, 1960, in a coup backed by the American CIA (Lumumba was eventually assassinated, as the film shows).
He renamed the country Zaire, and thus began his 30-year long totalitarian reign of violence, repression, and corruption, as he became one of the richest and most feared men in the world.
Also...
On film, you’ll find Mobutu (played by Alex Descas) in Raoul Peck’s 2000 film, Lumumba - the story of the rise to power and brutal assassination of the formerly vilified and later redeemed leader of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba – a film that’s been previously mentioned on this blog. Mobutu isn’t prominently featured, as it is Lumumba’s story; the film ends with Mobutu seizing power and taking control of the region, on September 14, 1960, in a coup backed by the American CIA (Lumumba was eventually assassinated, as the film shows).
He renamed the country Zaire, and thus began his 30-year long totalitarian reign of violence, repression, and corruption, as he became one of the richest and most feared men in the world.
Also...
- 9/7/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
I profiled this French zombie flick, titled La Horde, back in May, with an expected Us debut via IFC’s on-demand channel this month.
I’d forgotten all about it; and, thankfully, was reminded of it this morning while researching something else. Did any of you happen to remember and catch it?
IFC says it aired on August 11th, although, I can’t immediately tell if it was just a single day screening, or if it’s available throughout the month. IFC’s website doesn’t make it easy to find these things out. But it looks like it definitely aired on the 11th.
A quick recap… You should remember Eriq Ebouaney… his highest profile role likely being in Raoul Peck’s wonderful 2000 film Lumumba, as the titular character.
In, La Horde (The Horde), co-directed by Frenchmen Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocherhe, Ebouaney leads a pack of crooked cops and malevolent...
I’d forgotten all about it; and, thankfully, was reminded of it this morning while researching something else. Did any of you happen to remember and catch it?
IFC says it aired on August 11th, although, I can’t immediately tell if it was just a single day screening, or if it’s available throughout the month. IFC’s website doesn’t make it easy to find these things out. But it looks like it definitely aired on the 11th.
A quick recap… You should remember Eriq Ebouaney… his highest profile role likely being in Raoul Peck’s wonderful 2000 film Lumumba, as the titular character.
In, La Horde (The Horde), co-directed by Frenchmen Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocherhe, Ebouaney leads a pack of crooked cops and malevolent...
- 8/20/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
This looks like it could be bloody, disgusting, violent fun
You should remember Eriq Ebouaney… his highest profile role likely being in Raoul Peck’s wonderful 2000 film Lumumba, as the titular character.
In the below film titled, La Horde (The Horde), co-directed by Frenchmen Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocherhe, Ebouaney leads a pack of crooked cops and malevolent gangsters in a life/death battle against a horde of the walking dead – aka zombies.
The story goes… penned like animals on the top floor of a deserted high-rise block, in this gruesome, tight, action-packed, claustrophobic tale of retribution and escape, two opposing groups (the crooked cops and the gangsters) find that they are not alone in the lair of bloodthirsty corridors of death. Joining forces to survive, they must reach ground level together or perish!
The French film played the festival circuit in 2009 and 2010, and was reportedly a hit at the Venice Film Festival.
You should remember Eriq Ebouaney… his highest profile role likely being in Raoul Peck’s wonderful 2000 film Lumumba, as the titular character.
In the below film titled, La Horde (The Horde), co-directed by Frenchmen Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocherhe, Ebouaney leads a pack of crooked cops and malevolent gangsters in a life/death battle against a horde of the walking dead – aka zombies.
The story goes… penned like animals on the top floor of a deserted high-rise block, in this gruesome, tight, action-packed, claustrophobic tale of retribution and escape, two opposing groups (the crooked cops and the gangsters) find that they are not alone in the lair of bloodthirsty corridors of death. Joining forces to survive, they must reach ground level together or perish!
The French film played the festival circuit in 2009 and 2010, and was reportedly a hit at the Venice Film Festival.
- 5/11/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The plot should feel familiar to anyone broadly informed in global politics, and it’s a story that could have taken place in several conflict-laden nations, past and present.
In short, a president of a country with North American interests is elected “democratically,” backed by the Us government, with Obama-like promises of hope and reform that are never fully realized, after he gets comfortable with his power – a limited power, since he’s still very much a puppet for a foreign, more powerful government. But just don’t tell him that; after all, he’s the man in the high castle - literally; and just like the Philip K Dick novel, there are a collection of characters; some of them know each other, while others are connected indirectly, as they all cope with living under near-totalitarianism. Plus, there are multiple subplots, as well as a story-within-the-story.
Eventually, the constituency who appointed the president become impatient,...
In short, a president of a country with North American interests is elected “democratically,” backed by the Us government, with Obama-like promises of hope and reform that are never fully realized, after he gets comfortable with his power – a limited power, since he’s still very much a puppet for a foreign, more powerful government. But just don’t tell him that; after all, he’s the man in the high castle - literally; and just like the Philip K Dick novel, there are a collection of characters; some of them know each other, while others are connected indirectly, as they all cope with living under near-totalitarianism. Plus, there are multiple subplots, as well as a story-within-the-story.
Eventually, the constituency who appointed the president become impatient,...
- 12/24/2009
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Snowstorms like we had last night here in New York City can make any New Yorker long to be anywhere else but here – especially some place with a warmer climate.
However, as the title of this post suggests, one doesn’t have to look too hard to find reasons to love Gotham City – especially if you’re a lover of cinema!
And since you’re reading this blog, you probably are; so it’s with glee that I bring you the following news: I just got word that Moloch Tropical, Raoul Peck’s return to the big screen since 2000’s critically acclaimed Lumumba (an almost 10 year absence; although he did direct some TV projects within that time period), will be screening just Twice at MoMA, as part of their ongoing “The Contenders” screening series – essentially, a program culled from a list of films that includes studio film releases, as well...
However, as the title of this post suggests, one doesn’t have to look too hard to find reasons to love Gotham City – especially if you’re a lover of cinema!
And since you’re reading this blog, you probably are; so it’s with glee that I bring you the following news: I just got word that Moloch Tropical, Raoul Peck’s return to the big screen since 2000’s critically acclaimed Lumumba (an almost 10 year absence; although he did direct some TV projects within that time period), will be screening just Twice at MoMA, as part of their ongoing “The Contenders” screening series – essentially, a program culled from a list of films that includes studio film releases, as well...
- 12/20/2009
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Sundance Institute at BAM returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music from May 31-June 10, featuring award-winning feature and short films, live performances and panel discussions.
The series opens with The Savages, Tamara Jenkins' comic drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.
This year's dramatic features include Tom DiCillo's Delirious, Sterlin Harjo's Four Sheets to the Wind, JJ Lask's On the Road With Judas, Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro, Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels and Dror Shaul's Sweet Mud.
The series also will highlight musical performances by Ljova, the Blue Jackets with Bradford Reed, Rhythm Republik and Sussan Deyhim. New York-based theater company Mabou Mines will perform selections from "Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting," directed by Ruth Maleczech, which is scheduled for full production in September.
The closing weekend will feature Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing, Raoul Peck's Lumumba and Nick Broomfield's Soldier Girls, followed by a discussion on social issues and documentary filmmaking.
The full program for the Sundance Institute at BAM will be announced in April.
The series opens with The Savages, Tamara Jenkins' comic drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.
This year's dramatic features include Tom DiCillo's Delirious, Sterlin Harjo's Four Sheets to the Wind, JJ Lask's On the Road With Judas, Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro, Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, David Gordon Green's Snow Angels and Dror Shaul's Sweet Mud.
The series also will highlight musical performances by Ljova, the Blue Jackets with Bradford Reed, Rhythm Republik and Sussan Deyhim. New York-based theater company Mabou Mines will perform selections from "Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting," directed by Ruth Maleczech, which is scheduled for full production in September.
The closing weekend will feature Barbara Kopple's Shut Up & Sing, Raoul Peck's Lumumba and Nick Broomfield's Soldier Girls, followed by a discussion on social issues and documentary filmmaking.
The full program for the Sundance Institute at BAM will be announced in April.
- 3/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- Sometimes in April takes on the Rwandan genocide of 1994 with a story that incorporates both the big picture and a drama about a specific family. Writer-director Raoul Peck, who told the story of the rise to power and assassination of a Congolese leader in Lumumba, has the disadvantage of coming late to the subject. Along with several books about the horrifying events that left upward of 1 million people dead, several documentaries and the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda already have brought Rwanda to the screen. Undoubtedly, there are many, many stories arising from these atrocities yet to be told. But Peck's generic approach, in which one fictional tale tries to encompass the entire tragedy, falls considerably short of the mark.
In the United States, the film will air on HBO, where many people who successfully have avoided any book or movie will get exposed to the story perhaps for the first time, so this might do much good. In territories where April will get released theatrically, the film might have less impact.
The story is split between two Aprils, in 2004 and 1994, and tells the experiences of Augustin Muganza (Idris Elba). Peck contrives the makeup of his family in such a way that he can include as many horror stories as possible. Thus, Augustin is a Hutu army officer, but his wife (Carole Karemera) is Tutsi. His brother Honore (Oris Erhuero) works at a radio station known as "hate radio" that broadcasts a call to arms for Hutus to slaughter Tutsis during the three-month carnage. And Augustin's girlfriend in 2004, Martine (Pamela Nomvete), teaches at a Catholic girls school in 1994, which one of his daughters attends.
In April 2004, during the national Day of Remembrance, Augustin receives a letter from Honore, asking Augustin to visit him in prison in Tanzania, where he is about to plead guilty at the International Criminal Tribunal. Martine urges him to go. Augustin reluctantly does so, and the movie moves back and forth between the two Aprils to fill us in on what happened to the family -- and the nation.
A third sequence takes place behind closed doors in Washington, where U.S. officials debate and temporize but do nothing to stop the massacre. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Prudence Bushnell (Debra Winger) argues for action but gets nowhere. The impression left by these scenes -- that blame for nonintervention lies solely with the U.S. government and not other U.N. member states, including European powers with genuine stakes in the region -- is simplistic and misleading.
The film captures the tensions and fears as chaos rages in the streets and includes more than enough sequences of mass murder to get across the point that madness gripped the entire nation. However, none of its characters is sufficiently developed so that an audience really can identify with him, which is what makes Hotel Rwanda so much more powerful. Dialogue often deteriorates into speeches, and characters habitually make geopolitical points.
This Berlinale has its share of movies about ethnic carnage, such as Amu, about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India, and Massacre, about the Christian militia's murder of Palestinian civilians in refugee camps in 1982. Such films need to be made and seen. But they usually hit home strongest when filmmakers are willing to put as much effort into drama and character as into political posturing.
SOMETIMES IN APRIL
HBO Films
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Raoul Peck; Producer: Daniel Delume; Executive producers: Raoul Peck, Joel Stillerman; Director of photography: Eric Guichard; Production designer: Benoit Barouh; Music: Bruno Coulais; Costume designer: Paule Mangenot; Editor: Jacques Comets. Cast: Augustin: Idris Elba; Prudence Bushnell: Debra Winger; Jeanne: Carole Karemera; Martine: Pamela Nomvete; Honore: Oris Erhuero; Xavier: Fraser James; Lionel: Noah Emmerich.
No MPAA rating, running time 140 minutes.
In the United States, the film will air on HBO, where many people who successfully have avoided any book or movie will get exposed to the story perhaps for the first time, so this might do much good. In territories where April will get released theatrically, the film might have less impact.
The story is split between two Aprils, in 2004 and 1994, and tells the experiences of Augustin Muganza (Idris Elba). Peck contrives the makeup of his family in such a way that he can include as many horror stories as possible. Thus, Augustin is a Hutu army officer, but his wife (Carole Karemera) is Tutsi. His brother Honore (Oris Erhuero) works at a radio station known as "hate radio" that broadcasts a call to arms for Hutus to slaughter Tutsis during the three-month carnage. And Augustin's girlfriend in 2004, Martine (Pamela Nomvete), teaches at a Catholic girls school in 1994, which one of his daughters attends.
In April 2004, during the national Day of Remembrance, Augustin receives a letter from Honore, asking Augustin to visit him in prison in Tanzania, where he is about to plead guilty at the International Criminal Tribunal. Martine urges him to go. Augustin reluctantly does so, and the movie moves back and forth between the two Aprils to fill us in on what happened to the family -- and the nation.
A third sequence takes place behind closed doors in Washington, where U.S. officials debate and temporize but do nothing to stop the massacre. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Prudence Bushnell (Debra Winger) argues for action but gets nowhere. The impression left by these scenes -- that blame for nonintervention lies solely with the U.S. government and not other U.N. member states, including European powers with genuine stakes in the region -- is simplistic and misleading.
The film captures the tensions and fears as chaos rages in the streets and includes more than enough sequences of mass murder to get across the point that madness gripped the entire nation. However, none of its characters is sufficiently developed so that an audience really can identify with him, which is what makes Hotel Rwanda so much more powerful. Dialogue often deteriorates into speeches, and characters habitually make geopolitical points.
This Berlinale has its share of movies about ethnic carnage, such as Amu, about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India, and Massacre, about the Christian militia's murder of Palestinian civilians in refugee camps in 1982. Such films need to be made and seen. But they usually hit home strongest when filmmakers are willing to put as much effort into drama and character as into political posturing.
SOMETIMES IN APRIL
HBO Films
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Raoul Peck; Producer: Daniel Delume; Executive producers: Raoul Peck, Joel Stillerman; Director of photography: Eric Guichard; Production designer: Benoit Barouh; Music: Bruno Coulais; Costume designer: Paule Mangenot; Editor: Jacques Comets. Cast: Augustin: Idris Elba; Prudence Bushnell: Debra Winger; Jeanne: Carole Karemera; Martine: Pamela Nomvete; Honore: Oris Erhuero; Xavier: Fraser James; Lionel: Noah Emmerich.
No MPAA rating, running time 140 minutes.
- 2/18/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HBO has teamed with filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Raoul Peck and novelist Russell Banks to tell the story of 19th century militant abolitionist John Brown, one of the most famous radicals in American history. Based on Banks' novel of the same name, Cloudsplitter centers on Brown's quest for political change and social justice that culminated in his ill-fated raid on Harpers Ferry. Peck, who gained critical acclaim for his 2000 feature Lumumba, is set to direct the telefilm and will executive produce with Scorsese and Banks. Peck is repped by WMA, manager Jonathan Brandstein and attorney Nina Shaw. Banks, whose writing credits also include the novels Affliction and Continental Drift, is repped by Endeavor. Scorsese is repped by the Firm.
- 10/21/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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