Filmmaker Raoul Peck’s four-part series on HBO Max, “Exterminate All the Brutes,” tackles the origins of racism and white supremacy over 600 years. He uses archival footage, old Hollywood movies, and animation. He also recreates historical scenes with actor Josh Hartnett as a white racist everyman.
Peck is Haitian but grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, the U.S., and Germany. He weaves in his personal story while narrating the series: “As a filmmaker, I am compelled to stay hidden in the background, restrained, moderate, balanced, judicious, neutral even. You learn to avoid becoming the subject of your film. It’s not about you unless the story is bigger than you.”
He includes home movies from his childhood — an example of the colonialism he explores in the film.
Peck is known for his 2016 documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” which explored racism in the U.S. through the words of James Baldwin.