It has been said there’s a first time for
everything; also that there is a time and a place for everything under the sun.
In that light, and in full disclosure, I have not previously used this space to
review a movie. In the broadest sense, I am doing that today.
I finally went to see the film, I Am Not Your Negro, this weekend. I presume most folks who frequent this space are
culturally literate, woke, conscious, or otherwise attuned to contemporary
culture, however you may characterize that sense of being. Knowing that, I’ll
begin by providing a simple 30,000 feet bird’s eye summary and then go deeper.
The movie is a 2016
American documentary film.
It was directed by Raoul Peck,
and is based on James Baldwin's
unfinished manuscript Remember This House.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson provides narration. The key objective of the film is to explore the history of racism in America through
the lens of Mr. Baldwin's reminiscences of three iconic black civil rights
leaders: Medgar Evers,
Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr. All three men were
assassinated between June 1963 and April 1968, each before his 40th
birthday.
The picture was widely acclaimed, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary
Feature last month at the 89th Academy
Awards. Prior to that it premiered in September 2016 at the 2016
Toronto International Film Festival. There, it won the People’s Choice Award in the category
of Documentary Films. A short while later, Magnolia Pictures and
Amazon
Studios acquired the film’s distribution rights. It was preliminarily released in
December 2016 in order to qualify for this year’s Oscars. Subsequently, the
filmed had its primary opening in February 2017.
In addition to
garnering an Academy Award Nomination and winning a People’s Choice Award, the Rotten Tomatoes approval rating is 98%, based on 107
reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The summary review on the website
reads:
“I Am
Not Your Negro offers an incendiary snapshot of James Baldwin's crucial
observations on American race relations -- and a sobering reminder of how far
we've yet to go."
On Metacritic, the film has a
score of 96 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal
acclaim.”
The breadth of critical acclaim
the film has attracted is voluminous, with numerous nominations, some of which
are still pending. However, it has actually won the following:
· Black Film Critics Circle – Special Mention
· 52 Chicago International Film Festival – Audience Choice/Best
Documentary
· Hampton International Film Festival – Audience Award/Best
Documentary
· International Documentary Association – Creative Recognition Award/Best
Writing – Raoul Peck
· International Documentary Association – Creative Recognition
Award/Best Writing – James Baldwin
· Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards – Best Documentary
Film
· Philadelphia Film Festival – Audience Award/Best Feature
· Philadelphia Film Festival – Jury Prize for Best Documentary
Feature
· San Francisco Film Critics Circle – Best Documentary Film
· St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association – Best Documentary
Film
· 41st Toronto International Film Festival – People’s
Choice Award
· IndieWire Critics Poll – Best Documentary/3rd Place,
Best Editing/9th Place
· National Society of Film Critics Awards – Best Non-Fiction
Film/Runner-up
· Village Voice Film Poll – Best Documentary/3rd Place
(Tied w/No Home Movie)
The listing of nominations is
equally long and includes:
· Academy Awards – Best Documentary
· Alliance of Women Film Journalists – Best Documentary, Best
Editing
· Austin Film Critics Association Awards – Best Documentary
· Black Reel Awards – Best Documentary
· Dallas-Fort Worth Film
Critics Association – Best Documentary Film
· Florida Film Critics Award – Best Documentary Film
· Gotham Awards – Audience Award, Best Documentary
· Hampton International Film Festival – Brizzolara Family
Foundation Award For a Film of Conflict and Resolution – Best Film
· Independent Spirit Award – Best Documentary Feature
· International Documentary Association – IDA Award for Best Feature,
Video Source Award
· NAACP Image Award – Outstanding Documentary – Film
· North Carolina Film Critics Association – Best Documentary Film
· Online Film Critics Society – Best Documentary Film
· Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association Awards – Best Documentary
There are also several
nominations still pending, including:
· Central Ohio Film Critics Association – Best Documentary
· Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US – Cinema Eye Honors Choice Prize,
Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Feature Filmmaking, Outstanding
Achievement in Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Editing, Outstanding
Achievement in Original Music Score
In February 2017, Vintage
International, a Division of Random
House published the book, “I Am Not Your Negro,” as a companion document to the movie. This is arguably one of those
rare instances in which the movie preceded the book, sort of. Needless to say, the framework for the book
came into being long before the movie debuted. That’s a fair point, and one I
am not contesting.
I noted earlier that I “finally” got to see
the film. I became aware of it from a
trailer back in December when it was initially released. I knew right away I
wanted to see it.
The story begins with Baldwin’s reflections on
that moment, while living in France as an expatriate, that he came to realize
that he felt the pull of an irresistible magnetic force to return home and
engage more directly with what was this country’s quintessential civil rights
movement. He was irrevocably moved by the image of a young black girl, Dorothy
Counts, in Charlotte,
North Carolina, being confronted by a white mob as she
integrated the city’s Harding High School.
Upon returning to the United States, Baldwin
wrote a number of essays about the movement for various periodicals, including,
Harper’s, Partisan Review, Mademoiselle, The New York Times Magazine, The New
Yorker, The Progressive
During his travels, he met Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X.
He would come to know, work with, and write about all of them and the
work they did in an effort to move America to redeem itself of the vestiges of
its original sin. Over the course of his
travels across America, observing and writing, he would have occasions to
review and chronicle the lives, work, and death of Medgar, Malcolm, and Martin.
Moreover, he began work on what would have been a seminal work on the depth and
scope of the Movement, entitled, Remember This House. That
unfinished work became I Am Not Your Negro, and addresses among
other things, the different and similar views and approaches of a triumvirate
of members of the Movement’s pantheon of martyrs.
Obviously I am no film critic. But after
nearly a decade of blogging, I am a social commentator. I that role, I enthusiastically recommend
this film for your viewing. In fact, I would suggest adding it to your personal
catalogue/library. Even if you view the world through a different lens than any
of the prominent characters in the story, it is worthwhile to have access to a
number of real time accounts and reflections of someone who was in the midst or
on the periphery of these incredibly important historic events. At the very
least, to paraphrase part of the Rotten Tomatoes review, despite however far we
have or haven’t come, it is “a
sobering reminder of how far we've yet to go.”
That’s all
I’ve got. “Baldwin’s Reminiscences: Chicken Soup for theAfrocentric Soul!” I’m done; holla back!
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