EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck kicks off a five-city tour on Thursday for his latest film and awards contender Orwell: 2+2=5, beginning with screenings and Q&As at New York’s IFC Center from this evening.
The documentary, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and then played at Jerusalem and San Sebastian, goes on national release on October 10, care of Neon. The distributor has released a new clip which Deadline can reveal exclusively.
Prior to that and in unison with the wider release, Peck will also travel with the film to Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and assist in a virtual Q&A after a screening in Chicago.
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2+2=5 sees Peck revisit the work of George Orwell, one of the most radical and visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose 1940s novels, such as 1984 and Animal Farm, foretold a chilling, all-too-believable authoritarian future.
Working in collaboration with the Orwell Estate, Peck has gathered historical clips, readings from Orwell’s diary, cinematic references, and dynamic modern-day footage to deliver a definitive portrait of the writer as well an entirely fresh take on how remarkably relevant and prophetic his work has become.
The director also touches on his own personal connection to the material through his childhood experience of being forced to flee the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Award-winning actor Damian Lewis narrates the film.
Peck was previously Oscar nominated in the Best Documentary category for his 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro, with other works since including Ernest Cole: Lost and Found as well as fiction feature The Young Karl Marx.
For a deeper dive into Orwell: 2+2=5 checkout the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast here.
Very much looking forward to this releasing on streaming. I have heard incredible things.