I Am Not Your Negro. 2016. USA. Directed by Raoul Peck. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. DCP courtesy of Kino Lorber. In English. 95 min.
Ahead of its February 2017 regular theatrical release, Raoul Peck’s documentary I Am Not Your Negro had an exclusive run in December 2016 at the Maysles Documentary Center, selling out every screening. Announcing the screening, the MDC wrote: “Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck (Death of a Prophet, Lumumba, Fatal Assistance, Murder in Pacot) creates a stunning meditation on what it means to be Black in America. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his new endeavour: the writing of his final book, Remember This House, recounting the lives and successive assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Baldwin was not able to complete the book before his death, and the unfinished manuscript was entrusted to director Raoul Peck by the writer's estate. Built exclusively around Baldwin's words, Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro delves into the complex legacy of three lives (and deaths) that permanently marked the American social and political landscape. Framing the unfinished work as a radical narration about race in America, Peck matches Baldwin’s lyrical rhetoric with rich archival footage of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and connects these historical struggles for justice and equality to present-day movements.”