A track record of solid films, awards coming out of the yin-yang, travels around the world ... Peter Raymont’s is a good life that has tied him to Bermuda.

The Canadian film-maker was introduced to the island through Bermudian friends made while boarding at Trinity College School in Port Hope.

The Bermuda International Film Festival has him making regular trips back as president of White Pine Pictures, the independent film, television and media production company he started 40 years ago.

Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, A Promise to the Dead: the Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman and Guantánamo’s Child: Omar Khadr are among his films that have screened here.

Up next is The Corporate Coup d’État.

“I’m very fortunate to be invited to the film festival and was on the jury in 2008,” he said.

“It’s a fantastic place to show a film and have discussions about films.”

The Corporate Coup d’État argues that Donald Trump and right-wing populist movements around the world are “the result of a creeping corporate coup d’etat” that has taken over liberal and conservative political parties.

It’s a follow to All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of IF Stone, the White Pine Pictures documentary that screened here in 2017 and shadowed investigative journalists as they exposed government and corporate deception.

“The Corporate Coup d’État [looks at] how big corporations and billionaires hijacked the democratic process.

“I think it’s so relevant to what’s happening in the United States today and elsewhere, which partly resulted in the election of Donald Trump,” Mr Raymont said.

“So many people feel excluded from the democratic process; they’re frustrated and we wanted to chart the source of that, the growth of corporatism. Trump is not an anomaly, he is the result of something that’s been building and growing for a long time — the corporate donations to political campaigns are extraordinary.

“Trump is controlled by deeper forces, not so much the people who voted or didn’t vote for him.

“Many people have given up on the notion of democracy so the film is a call to a realisation: wake up, otherwise it will get worse and worse.”

Directed by Fred Peabody, The Corporate Coup d’État draws on the strengths of a body of “very solid writers and researchers” that includes Chris Hedges, John Ralston Saul, Cornel West and Sarah Jaffe.

“Chris Hedges talks of sacrifice zones created in the American economy where corporations have given up on places and the rates of unemployment and poverty have become so high,” Mr Raymont said.

“He also talks to people who voted for Obama twice — and then voted for Trump. It’s important to try to understand why that occurred in huge numbers.”

The film had four sold-out screenings at its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam last November.

“It was quite wonderful,” Mr Raymont said. “The reviews have been good, positive.”

As yet, he’s had no feedback from US corporations or government officials.

“I am sure that will happen once the film has screened and been distributed in the US,” he said.

“[It will show on] 20 screens in Canada, starting in May. I’m delighted with that response from Cineplex and am expecting similar roll outs in the United States.

“Canadians have a unique perspective [on America]. It’s as if we’re sleeping with an elephant — we feel it every time it rolls over.

“We’re just outside it so we’re able to observe what’s going on culturally and politically and comment on it. It’s been very successful for a lot of Canadian writers, comedians, film-makers to have that perspective.

“In a way, it’s easier to look at from just outside than if inside; sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.”

It’s not the only project that’s recently held his attention.

Mr Raymont spent a good portion of last year travelling the world with Margaret Atwood, the celebrated Canadian poet who authored The Handmaid’s Tale, and documenting her life.

“I went to Iceland with her, to Amsterdam, to Beverly Hills — all over the place.

“It’s an honour to be making a film about her.”

A “mutual friend” proposed the documentary to Atwood, “rumoured to be on the shortlist for the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature”. The 79-year-old will this year release The Testament, her much-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. The acclaimed novel has been made into a movie since its 1985 release and is now an Emmy Award-winning television series.

“She’s turning 80 in November this year and many people in Canada are thinking of and planning ways to celebrate her 80th — one was this film,” Mr Raymont said. “She agreed to it and was happy with us tagging along. She’s incredibly busy. We flew back and forth across the Atlantic and around the world.

“She has a new book out in September, a follow to The Handmaid’s Tale, and our film will be coming out in September as well. Many people are hoping for her to win the Nobel Prize this year. It would be wonderful for her to be honoured in that way.”

White Pine Productions also has a documentary in the works about noted artists who have created here.

Bermuda Muse is being proposed as “a spectacular visual and musical montage of paintings, songs and writings by artists who have visited Bermuda, and those who live there”.

Georgia O’Keefe, Winslow Homer, Sharon Wilson, Dame Jennifer Smith, Noel Coward and William Shakespeare are on a list of people to be profiled.

“For several years I’ve been coming to Bermuda and, like many people, am entranced and beguiled by the beauty of Bermuda,” Mr Raymont said.

“Sharon Wilson, Otto Trott and Graham Foster [are among the] great Bermudian artists who will be included in film [which might] help put them on a bigger stage.”

Now in the process of fundraising for it, he’s hoping some of the money will come from art lovers here.

Aside from that he’s hoping to reconnect with old friends when he visits next month with Nancy Lang, co-director of Bermuda Muse.

“We have four films coming out this year — documentaries. Plus, we’re producing a regular series for CBC about artists in the making. We’re also developing new films — you gotta have something in the hopper.

“It’s the 40th anniversary of my little company and to come to Bermuda for part of the celebration is wonderful. It makes me really happy.”

•The Bermuda International Film Festival runs March 10 through 17. Corporate Coup d’État will screen at 3pm at City Hall on March 15. Tickets, $18, are available on ptix.bm. For more information: www.biff.bm, info@biff.bm or 293-3456