Raoul Peck has become one of the most intriguing figures in the international film community.

Born in Haiti, raised in Zaire (DRC) and France, he remains one of few filmmakers that successfully produce documentaries and feature films.

Raoul Peck

His early travels throughout the world have informed his particular aesthetic as a filmmaker.

Peck initially studied engineering and economics at Berlin University.


He worked as a journalist and photographer from 1980 to 1985. In 1988 he received his film degree from the Berlin Academy of Film and Television.

His feature was 1993's Homme Sur Les Quais (The Man by the Shore), which was the first Haitian film to be released in theatres in the United States; this feature was also selected for competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2000, he released Lumumba, a film that tells the story behind the rise and execution of Patrice Lumumba, independent Zaire's first president.

Peck divides his time between Europe and the United States and for a brief time in the 1990s he served as Haiti's Minister of Culture.

In 1994 he was awarded the Nestor Almendros Prize by the Human Rights Watch in New York; and in 2001 he received the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award.