Peter Raymont

Filmmaker, journalist and writer Peter Raymont has produced and directed over 100 documentary films and series during a 35-year career. His films have taken him to Ethiopia, Nicaragua, India, Rwanda, the High Arctic and throughout North America and Europe.

A founding member and past-president of The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), Raymont is the recipient of 35 international awards including the Canadian Genie, 4 Gemini Awards, several Gold and Silver Hugos, The Sesterce d’Argent and other international honours. His documentary feature, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire was honoured with the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentaries at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the Jury Award at the Philadelphia Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary and Best Canadian Television Program at the Banff International Television Festival and first prize for creative documentary at the Paris Human Rights Film Festival. The film has recently been nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary.

Often provocative investigations of “hidden worlds” in politics, media and big business, his films are informed with a passion for human rights and social justice.

In 1979, Raymont moved from Montreal to Toronto and from the National Film Board of Canada to his independent film and television production company now operating as White Pine Pictures. He co-partnered the company for many years with his late wife, award-winning filmmaker and author, Lindalee Tracey.

Produced by Raymont, A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman; an exploration of exile, memory, longing and democracy by the best-selling American-Argentinean writer and playwright will have its World Premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.