Peter Raymont’s documentary Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire has already made a major impact in 2005, drawing over 1.5 million viewers to its CBC and Radio-Canada broadcasts after winning an audience award for world cinema documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival.

In June, the Banff World Television Festival plans to honor the film and its makers. Banff organizers have announced retired lieutenant-general and newly appointed Senator Roméo Dallaire as its keynote speaker to open the festival June 13. Dallaire served as head of the United Nations mission to Rwanda at the time of the genocide in 1994, when an estimated 800,000 were murdered. Dallaire’s experiences are recounted in his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, the source material for Raymont’s doc.

Then, on June 14, Banff will welcome Raymont for an ‘In Conversation’ session to discuss his 34-year career, during which he has completed over 100 documentaries.