Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, December 9: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Raoul Peck’s adaptation of James Baldwin’s unfinished book on race in America debuted at Toronto this Fall. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, New Orleans, New York Film Festival, the Hamptons, Chicago, Virginia, AFI Fest, and Philadelphia, among other events. The film was announced this week as part of the Oscars shortlist. While the film’s primary release will take place in early February, its awards-qualifying run commences this weekend.
Before his death in 1987, author and public intellectual James Baldwin had planned to complete REMEMBER THIS HOUSE, a personal reflection on race through the stories of three men he knew well, martyrs of the civil rights movement Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Peck has taken Baldwin’s 30 completed pages and crafted a masterwork examining the complex and contentious history of black lives in this country. While still focused on Baldwin’s intended main subjects, Peck’s cogent, gripping essay broadens the scope to include the author himself, represented in powerful archival interviews as well as through Samuel L Jackson’s recital of his writing, and takes on a sad, ever-present topicality, addressing the continued violence against African Americans signified by the Black Lives Matter movement.
