Peter Raymont

Peter Raymont
Born	Peter Raymont (1950-02-28) February 28, 1950 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s)	film director, screenwriter, producer, film editor & cinematographer
Years active	1971-present
Spouse	Lindalee Tracey (May 14, 1957 - October 19, 2006) her death
Website	http://www.whitepinepictures.com/

Peter Raymont (born February 28, 1950) is a Canadian filmmaker and producer and the president of White Pine Pictures, an independent film, television and new media production company based in Toronto. Among his films are Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire (2005), A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman (2007), The World Stopped Watching (2003) and The World Is Watching (1988). The 2011 feature documentary West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson and 2009's Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould were co-directed with Michèle Hozer.

Education

Raymont attended Crighton Street School, Rockcliffe Park Public School and Lisgar Collegiate Institute. He graduated from Trinity College School in Port Hope in 1968.

At Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario he was honoured with the Tricolour Award for contribution to the university community. Raymont graduated from Queen's University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science and Film Studies. Raymont is a graduate of The Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies in North York, Ontario (First Year, 1988), now the Canadian Film Centre. He was a co-founder of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, now The Documentary Organization of Canada and is a member of The Directors' Guild of Canada and The Canadian Media Producers' Association.

Early career

Raymont's career began at age 21 at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal. From 1971 to 78, he worked as an editor, director and producer. While at the NFB, Raymont also taught film and video production in the Canadian Arctic. In 1978, Raymont moved to Toronto and established his independent film and television production company, Investigative Productions 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.

Career

Raymont was executive producer of the television drama series The Border, which he co-created with Lindalee Tracey, Janet MacLean and Jeremy Hole, and Cracked, a Toronto-based police procedural which explores the intersection of the law and mental illness. Cracked's 2 seasons are also broadcast in France, Germany, USA and elsewhere.

Raymont's documentary feature Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire was honoured with the 2005 Audience Award for World Cinema Documentaries at The Sundance Film Festival and the 2007 Emmy Award for Best Documentary. A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman]' was longlisted for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Genius Within premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, followed by invitational presentations at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) and several other festivals worldwide (Full Frame, Vancouver, Seattle, Sydney, Melbourne, Hawaii, Bermuda). The film opened theatrically across Canada, USA and Australia in 2010, playing in over 50 US cities. A two-hour version of the film was broadcast on the PBS series American Masters in December, 2010. Genius Within won the 2010 Gemini Award for Best Biography Documentary presented by the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television, and was short-listed for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

In 2015 Raymont received an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from Trent University

In 2019 he was named the winner of the Don Haig Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Filmography

Year	Title	Contribution
1970	Blue	Director/Producer
1971	Have You Ever Been North of Princess Street?	Director/Producer
1972	Just Another Job The Point: Community Legal Clinic	Editor
1973	The Innocent Door	Associate Producer/Editor
1974	The Coldspring Project	Producer/Editor
1975	Sikusilarmiut Lumsden The Forest Watchers Natsik Hunting	Director/Producer Director Director Producer
1977	The Hunters River: Planet Earth Whale Hunting Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention	Producer Director Producer Director
1978	Reflections of a Leadership Convention The Art of the Possible	Director
1979	History on the Run: The Media and the ’79 Election	Director/Producer
1981	Magic in the Sky	Director/Producer
1982	Arctic Spirits Falasha: Agony of the Black Jews	Director/Producer Director
1983	On to the Polar Sea: A Yukon Adventure Prisoners of Debt: Inside The Global Banking Crisis	Director/Writer
1985	With Our Own Two Hands	Director/Producer
1986	At The Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis	Director
1987	The Brokers The Politics of Aid	Director/Producer Director
1988	The World Is Watching	Director/Writer
1989	Only The News That Fits	Director/Producer
1990	As Long As the Rivers Flow (5 x 1hr Episodes) Between Two Worlds	Producer
1992	Voices From the Shadows	Director/Producer
1993	Chasing the Dream	Director/Producer
1994	Hearts of Hate: The Battle for Young Minds	Director/Producer
1995	Abby, I Hardly Knew Ya The Skeptic’s Journey	Producer Director
1997	Invisible Nation: Policing the Underground The New Ice Age: A Year in the Life of the NHL (6 Episodes Passing the Flame: The Legacy of Women’s College Hospital	Producer Director/Producer Producer
1998	A Scattering of Seeds (52 x ½ hr Episodes)	Producer
1999	Rwanda: In Search of Hope	Director/Producer
2000	Toronto: City of Dreams (3 x 1hr Episodes)	Producer
2001	Graveyard Shift (6 x ½ hr Episodes)	Director/Producer
2002	The Undefended Border (3 x 1 hr Episodes) King of Hearts	Director/Producer Director
2003	Into the Light The World Stopped Watching Arctic Dreamer: The Lonely Quest of Vilhjalmur Stefansson The Hero’s Hero: The Forgotten Life of William Barker The Anatomy of Burlesque (2 x 1 hr Episodes)	Director/Producer Director/Producer Director/Producer Executive Producer/Creative Advisor Producer
2004	Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire Bhopal: The Search for Justice The Killer Cure	Director/Producer Director/Producer Producer
2005	The Idealist: James Beveridge, Film Guru	Producer
2007	A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman Tsepong: A Clinic Called Hope The Border (38 x 1hr Episodes)	Director/Producer Producer Executive Producer
2008	Worlds Collide: The Saga of Herschel Island I Nuligak: An Inuvialuit History of First Contact Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta Radical Dreamer: The Passionate Journey of Graham Spry Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma	Producer Producer Producer Director/Producer Producer
2009	Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould City Sonic (20 Webisodes) Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel	Director/Producer Producer Producer
2010	Pets on Prozac Experimental Eskimos Winds of Heaven: Emily Carr, Carvers and The Spirit of The Forest The Team Prosecutor	Producer
2011	West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson	Co-Director/Producer
2012	Cracked Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children	Executive Producer Producer
2014	Guantanamo's Child Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven	Producer
2015	Premier: The Unscripted Kathleen Wynne Where the Universe Sings: The Spiritual Journey of Lawren Harris	Producer Co-Director/Producer
2016	All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I. F. Stone Girls' Night Out Arctic Secrets (8 x 1 hr Episodes)	Producer Producer Producer, Executive Producer
2017	We Are Canada (6 x 1 hr Episodes) PTSD: Beyond Trauma The Truth Is In The Stars	Executive Producer
2018	In the Making (16 x ½ hr Episodes) The Corporate Coup D'État	Executive Producer
2019	Toxic Beauty Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word after a Word is Power	Executive Producer Executive Producer Co-Director/Producer
2020	CitizenKid: Earth Comes First	Executive Producer
2021	Wild Pacific Rescue (3 x 1 hr Episodes) The Price of Cheap Sleeping Warrior	Executive Producer
2022	Unloved: Huronia's Forgotten Children Ice-Breaker: The 1972 Summit Series Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On	Executive Producer Producer/Executive Producer Executive Producer
2023	Balancing Act	Executive Producer
2024	Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics Shadow Man: William Stephenson and the Art of Political Warfare	Executive Producer

Awards

• International Emmy Award Winner for Best Arts Programming - Buffy Sainte Marie 2023
• Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary (Guantanamo's Child), 2016
• Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
• NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARD - Best Documentary 2007
• GENIE AWARD

Gemini Awards:

• Best Sports Program or Series 1999
• Best History-Biography Documentary, 2004
• Best Direction of a Documentary, 2004
• Best Biography Documentary, 2010

Canadian Film and Television Awards

• Best Documentary 1983

Sundance Film Festival

• AUDIENCE AWARD - World Cinema Documentary, 2005

Philadelphia Film Festival

• JURY AWARD - Best Documentary, 2005

Chicago International Film Festival

• SILVER HUGO - Best Social/Political Documentary 1991
• GOLD HUGO - Best Social/Political Documentary 1988
• GOLD PLAQUE - Social/Political Documentary 1983

American Film Festival, New York City

• Blue Ribbon, Best Social/Political Documentary 1976
• Red Ribbon Social/Political Documentary 1983

Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, Switzerland

• Sesterce d'Argent, 1990
• Ecumenical Prize and Second Public Jury Prize, 1988

Leipzig International Film Festival

• Best Short Documentary 1976
• International Jury Award, 1991

Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), Biarritz, France

• Special Jury Mention, 2004
• Honourable Mention, 2004

Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, ACTRA Awards

• Top Ten Award, 1999
• Best Writing, TV Documentary 1984

Yorkton International Film Festival, Canada

• Best Documentary, Sports/Recreation and Best Cinematography 1985
• Best Broadcast Documentary 1991
• Best Documentary 2010

Alberta Film and Television (AMPIA)

• Best Documentary 1986

International Arctic Film Festival (Rovaniemi, Finland)

• Special Award, Television 1986

23rd International Festival of Short Films (Cracow, Poland)

• Polish National Peace Committee Prize, 1986

National Film and Video Association, Oakland, California

• Bronze Apple 1990, Gold Apple 1991, Bronze Apple 1994, Gold Apple 1995

Worldfest Houston

• Gold, Special Jury Prize, 2001
• Gold Award for Documentary Series 2000
• Special Jury Prize, 2000
• Gold Award for Sports Documentary 1999
• Gold Medal for Best Documentary Television Series 1998
• Silver Award 1992, Certificate of Merit-Finalist 1995

Academy Awards, Los Angeles, USA

• Honourable Mention, Documentary category, 1983

Berlin Film Festival

• Honourable Mention, Peace Prize Committee 1989

External links

• Peter Raymont at IMDb
• White Pine Pictures site
• Watch films by Peter Raymont at NFB.ca