The NYU Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA) has named groundbreaking Haitian filmmaker, educator and human rights activist Raoul Peck Scholar-in-Residence through July 31, 2014. Peck, who gained widespread fame for award-winning films such as Lumumba and The Man by the Shore, will participate in a series of events and workshops for both Tisch students and the wider community.
“NYU Tisch would be proud to host Raoul Peck based solely on his genius as a filmmaker, but his commitment to political activism and to educating the next generation has made him one of the most unique and important voices in the global cinematic world today,” said Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Dean of TSOA. “With a body of work encompassing film and television, narrative and documentary, Raoul’s shining example of socially conscious film is truly inspiring.”
A native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Peck was raised in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo after his family fled Haiti’s Duvalier regime. Educated in France, the United States and Germany, where he studied industrial engineering and filmmaking, Peck was the first Haitian film to have a film in American theatrical release with The Man By the Shore (Cannes, 1993). Lumumba, his feature film released in 2000 about Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the struggle for independence in Belgian Congo, won Best Documentary at the Fribourg Film festival and US premiered at the New York Film Festival. In 2005, he produced and directed Sometimes in April for HBO, about the Rwandan genocide (Berlinale Competition 2005). His last feature film, Moloch Tropical, was presented in Toronto and Berlin. While in New York, Peck will also be conducting research for a documentary on the novelist, playwright and essayist James Baldwin.
In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Peck is the former Minister of Culture of the Republic of Haiti, and the recipient of the Irene Diamond Award presented by the Human Rights Watch for his body of work. Since 2010, he has served as chairman of the board of La Fémis, the film school in France.
About the NYU Tisch School of the Arts
The Tisch School of the Arts is dedicated to supporting, nurturing and molding the individual voice behind each artist and student. The school offers professional training degree programs in a wide variety of disciplines encompassing acting, dance, design, drama, performance studies, film and television, cinema studies, photography and imaging, dramatic writing, musical theatre writing, recorded music, and interactive telecommunications.