Haitian director, screenwriter and producer Raoul Peck, Canadian politician Louise Beaudoin, and ASPAS, the South American Cinema foundation, will be honored with French Coalition for Cultural Diversity awards – an organization and annual award that aim to defend and promote cultural diversity. 

Rewards go to individuals who are committed, in their professional or political lives, to the fight for cultural diversity.

The President of the French Coalition, Pascal Rogard, presented the Awards today, December 3.

The former Minister of Culture of Haiti and current President of the Fémis (the French state film school), Raoul Peck was born in Haiti and raised in Congo, France, Germany and the United States. His work has varied between documentary filmmaking and scripted fictional narratives, but seemingly always with a intentional, unwavering political slant.

We've featured much of his work on S&A – from his Patrice Lumuba biopic, Lumumba, to his scathing satire of Haitian government and power, Moloch Tropical.

Much of his work has been internationally acclaimed, and rightfully so.

Most recently, we announced that he's in post-production on his follow-up to Moloch Tropical (one of the best films I saw in 2010), with a feature documentary titled Assistance Mortelle (or Deadly Assistance in English), which will offer the world a look at the international community's response and reaction to the devastating 2010 earthquake the country suffered, through the eyes of Haitians in Haiti. 

Seemingly promising what will be an exposé, the 100-minute fim (culled from a total of over 500 hours of footage) was shot over 2 years, starting after the January 2010 earthquake, through this year, and is said to currently be in post-production.

IMDBPro lists the film with the English title Haiti's Billions, which speaks to the reported billions of dollars in foreign aid that were said to have poured into Haiti relief after the earthquake, although it's not entirely clear where all that money went, since many are still living in squalor.

A 2013 debut is expected.

Kudos to Mr Peck on the recognition – one of many that will continue to come, I'm sure.

Needless to say, we're big fans of the man's work, and encourage you to seek out his existing films, if you haven't seen them yet.