Raoul Peck is a Haitian filmmaker. In many ways, he is to Haiti what Adam Curtis is to the UK.
For those of you who know how fond of Adam Curtis's documentaries I am, you will know this is a compliment. Their approach is similar, in many ways, to placing historical events in context.
Reviews:
From Variety:
The project is described as an exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism. It will feature documentary footage and archival material as well as original animation and interpretive scripted scenes. Josh Hartnett will play the lead role in the scripted portions.“This project has been my biggest challenge so far,” Peck said. “It forced me to question not only our common knowledge but also my own experience as a filmmaker. I’m excited that HBO is supporting that vision.”The series is based on three works by authors and scholars: Sven Lindqvist’s “Exterminate All the Brutes,” Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s “An Indigenous People’s History of the United States,” and Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s “Silencing the Past.”
I've watched several of the episodes that ran on HBO today. They were very compelling.
The overarching message is that the history of European conquest was, in practice, a barbaric exercise of inhuman violence. And there's compelling evidence he's not wrong in this respect, whether in reference to the first European appearance in the New World, to France's endeavor to retake Haiti after the Haitian revolution (an event he correctly regards as the birth of the abolitionist movement) to the events giving rise to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
It's a visceral documentary. It's one thing to read of past barbarism in A People's History of the United States. Yet, it is another thing entirely to see it portrayed in high definition.
He didn't change my mind about European imperialism, or any other political issue. But the documentary was well put together. Done in such a way as to allow people to reach their own conclusions, while reframing the historical narrative from focusing on the myths America's forefathers told themselves to the costs in blood and suffering those efforts entailed.
If you're interested in history, this is worth watching.
