Raymonde Provencher

Raymonde Provencher has been roving the world, led by her passion for international issues, for over twenty-five years. Her reporting career began in the Radio-Canada newsroom in 1973. For the next ten years, she worked on a number of television programs at Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec that allowed her to expand her horizons into areas such as cultural issues with Femmes D'aujourd'hui (1973-1976); daily news with Ce Soir (1976-1980); politics with special reports such as Référendum 80; scientific issues with Science-Réalité (1980) and public affairs with L'Objectif (1980-1983). During her two-year mandate as President of the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists, the association undertook the first major review of international reporting in the province of Quebec.

In 1983, Raymonde and film makers Robert Cornellier and Patricio Henriquez teamed up to create and develop Télé-Québec’s Nord-Sud television program, which soon became the province’s benchmark international news show. For the next thirteen years, the length of the Nord-Sud adventure, Raymonde played an active role in nearly 100 reports, traveling to some thirty countries in the process. Among these reports were a number of prize-winners, including Tajwar Kakar, moudjaheda Afghane, winner of the M.I.M. Award (Media, Islam and Muslims, 1989); Femmes en péril, a documentary on the fate of women refugees in Malaysia, Costa Rica and Zambia that won the Media Watch Award in Toronto (1990) and the 3rd prize of the Rencontre Média Nord-Sud in Geneva (1991); and, Les Défis d'Aristide, rewarded with the Grand Prix de la Communauté des Télévisions Francophones, International category (1991). Between reports, Raymonde served as host of Nord-Sud.

In 1995, when the Nord-Sud adventure came to an end, Raymonde and her colleagues, Patricio Henriquez and Robert Cornellier, decided to form their own private production company: Macumba International. Soon, the threesome developed Living in the City, the first major documentary series to spotlight some of the most fascinating cities in the world through citizens’ personal accounts. Raymonde Provencher both researched and hosted this thirteen part urban documentary series that was completed in 2000.

At the same time, she also worked on the documentary Des marelles et des petites filles (Les Productions Virage inc.), a project she instigated which went on to win three Gémeaux awards including the prize for best research.

As a co-producer, Raymonde collaborated on two documentaries directed by Patricio Henriquez: September 11, 1973 : The Last Stand of Salvador Allende, and Images of a Dictatorship. Both received critical acclaim and numerous awards and prizes.

In 2001, as part of the Extremis series – which won three Gémeaux awards – Raymonde directed documentaries on child workers in the Philippines and on the pilferage of water in Palestine.

The following year, she wrote and directed the feature-length documentary War Babies, on the fate of children born to victims of wartime rape. The film won critical acclaim and four Gémeaux Awards (2003) for Best documentary, Research, Editing and Sound, the Audience Award for Best documentary at the Hot Docs! Canadian International Festival in Toronto, Canada (2003), the Best Documentary award at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival in Saskatchewan, Canada (2003), and the Human Rights award at the Docupolis International Documentary Festival in Barcelona, Spain.

In 2005, Raymonde directed Leaving or Dying, an episode of the eXtremis series on illegal immigration. In 2007, she completed a film on abuses committed by Peacekeepers around the world Blue Helmets: Peace and Dishonour and in 2008, she released A Senseless Death a film about one of the first American GIs killed in Iraq. She is now currently working on a film on the fate of girl soldiers in Uganda.