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.
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.[1] 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.
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.
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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]
In 2015 Raymont received an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from Trent University[5]
In 2019 he was named the winner of the Don Haig Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[6]
Gemini Awards:
Canadian Film and Television Awards
Sundance Film Festival
Philadelphia Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
American Film Festival, New York City
Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, Switzerland
Leipzig International Film Festival
Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA), Biarritz, France
Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, ACTRA Awards
Yorkton International Film Festival, Canada
Alberta Film and Television (AMPIA)
International Arctic Film Festival (Rovaniemi, Finland)
23rd International Festival of Short Films (Cracow, Poland)
National Film and Video Association, Oakland, California
Worldfest Houston
Academy Awards, Los Angeles, USA
Berlin Film Festival