The writings of James Baldwin power a thought-provoking documentary on race in America.
During a year of intense social and philosophical upheaval, specifically centered on the African-American experience, the stories of the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders feel more painfully relevant than ever 50 years later. One of the most iconic voices of this era was the author James Baldwin, a writer who could elucidate the dynamic between Black Americans and their White counterparts in his masterful prose. As is the case, many yearn for an impossible reality that would allow the late author to comment on our current racial landscape and offer his thoughts. This idea serves as the focus of Raoul Peck’s powerful new documentary I Am Not Your Negro, an unconventional work that succeeds largely thanks to the words Baldwin left behind.
The documentary itself is loosely structured around Baldwin’s unfinished text, Remember This House, a book that was to focus on the assassinations of civil rights activists (and Baldwin’s friends) Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King Jr. as a means of speaking to race in America. Using almost entirely Baldwin’s own words (either from recorded interviews or text read by Samuel L. Jackson) Peck places Baldwin’s work in conversation with recent events like the Ferguson protests and other police shootings. The film also prominently focuses on Baldwin’s views on popular culture, including film and television clips that demonstrate how racial messages are conveyed through mass entertainment.
As one would expect, the film is at its best when it allows the passion of Baldwin’s words and writing to take center stage. While Jackson’s voiceover work is impressive and understated, there is undeniable electricity in the clips of Baldwin’s interviews and debates over his ideas. The texts and ideas selected for the film do carry a relevance to today, such as Baldwin’s discussion of institutional racism on The Dick Cavett Show in 1968, a fact that speaks as much to Baldwin’s insights as the frightful lack of progress the country’s made in certain aspects. The film does also go beyond just the philosophical elements, offering deeply emotional accounts of Baldwin’s experiences at MLK’s funeral and a sequence discussing the lynching of Blacks in the south.
The documentary does struggle at times to match Baldwin’s texts with visual components, occasionally dulling his writing with bland nature imagery or shots of Times Square. Additionally those who take interest in why Baldwin abandoned this book idea will likely be disappointed in the limited information provided about the project after its introduction. Ultimately while the documentary never seems to follow a clear narrative trajectory, it carries all the vitality and beauty Baldwin’s work is remembered for, ensuring audiences will want to keep listening no matter where it takes them.
We screened the film at the New York Film Festival.
For more information visit here: https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2016/films/i-am-not-your-negro/
-Nathan Braun
