Shock of the Real: History As Provocation

With: Raoul Peck, Ben Gibson
Topics: #Berlinale Special #Berlinale Panorama #Film History #Jury #Directing #Political Cinema (...)

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 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.

Raoul Peck

Born in Haiti and raised in Zaire and the United States, Raoul Peck studied in France, the U.S. and at the DFFB in Berlin. His feature L’HOME SUR LES QUAIS (1993) was the first Caribbean film to screen in competition at Cannes. From 1996 until 1997 he served as Haiti’s Minister of Culture. He was a member of the Berlinale’s International Jury in 2002 and of the Cannes competition jury in 2012. His features and documentaries have screened several times at the Berlinale.

Ben Gibson

Ben Gibson is the director of the DFFB film school in Berlin. He was previously director of degree programmes at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and a visiting professor at Goldsmiths. From 2001 to 2014, he was director of the London Film School. He is a former independent producer and was head of production at the British Film Institute from 1988 to 1998. Before that he was a distributor, exhibitor, theatre director, film critic and journalist.