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FILM SUMMARY
On the time of his passing in 1987, James Baldwin left behind simply 30 pages of an unfinished e book venture
titled “Keep in mind This Home.” It was to be a private account of the rise and fall of fellow civil rights icons
Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X, every of whom he had come to know personally earlier than
their assassinations. Choosing up the place Baldwin left off, director Raoul Peck makes an attempt to weave collectively these
remaining free narrative threads utilizing solely Baldwin’s phrases, through startlingly clairvoyant video clips of Baldwin in
interviews or lectures, and earthily interpreted readings of Baldwin’s texts by Samuel L. Jackson. The result’s an
interpretive essayistic documentary that surveys how the civil rights motion and America’s failures to wholly
embrace it are nonetheless frightenly related and proceed to form our present instances.
James Baldwin has lengthy been an eloquent voice on race relations and the African-American expertise,
showing in panel discussions alongside his extra well-known contemporaries all through the 1960s whereas
publishing novels, essays, and scripts for the stage till his dying within the 1980s. He additionally wrote a substantial
quantity of movie criticism, culling from his reminiscences of watching Doris Day and Gary Cooper or the movies of Harry
Belafonte and Sidney Poitier to investigate the inequalities depicted and perpetuated in racial representations on
display screen. Pulling from Baldwin’s writings, in addition to the clips from the films he wrote about, Peck provides Baldwin
his big-screen due with crystalline lucidity and a deeply emotional sense of cultural objective.
I Am Not Your Negro
Dialogue Information
Director: Raoul Peck
12 months: 2016
Time: 95 min
You would possibly know this director from:
The Younger Karl Marx (2017)
Homicide in Pacot (2014)
Help mortelle (2013)
Moloch Tropical (2009)
Typically in April (2005)
Lumumba (2000)
It’s Not About Love (1998)
Chère Catherine (1997)
Haiti – Silence of the Canines (1994)
The Man on the Shore (1993)
Lumumba, The Demise of a Prophet (1990)
Dialogue Information I Am Not Your Negro 1
FILM THEMES
James Baldwin as soon as said on nationwide tv that he was not a
“nigger,” however in truth, he was a person, and in case you thought that he was certainly
a “nigger,” that meant that you just wanted this hateful time period and also you wanted
to determine why, as the way forward for america was relying on
this actual fact. This core thought of racial inequality haunts the whole thing of I
AM NOT YOUR NEGRO.
SOCIAL JUSTICE REMAINS TO BE SEEN
Above all else, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is a searing indictment of
America’s failure to rectify its shameful historical past of racial inequality.
Baldwin’s private account of the civil rights motion and its trio of
outspoken icons on the susceptible vanguard reminds us that there’s
nonetheless a lot work to be completed. As if to hammer residence simply how little we’ve
moved ahead because the violence dedicated in opposition to civil rights activists
all through the 1950s and 1960s, Peck cuts away from the disturbing
black and white archival footage to current pictures of the streets of
Ferguson, Missouri, the place riots broke out after the deadly 2014 capturing of
Michael Brown, an African-American man, by a white police officer.
RACIAL REPRESENTATION IN THE MEDIA
Over the course of his prolonged and productive profession, Baldwin wrote
a substantial quantity of cultural criticism, together with many essays on
racial illustration in cinema. Peck makes use of this reality to his benefit
all through I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, utilizing movie clips and Baldwin’s
impassioned writings, the movie manages to indicate simply how subtly racial
inequality was ingrained in movies from the delivery of the films onwards,
and the way they have been perceived in another way by black and white audiences all
alongside the way in which.
PEOPLE ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT
Halfway by I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Baldwin is quoted expressing
simply how completely different Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.
have been, however in writing about their variations he was actually trying to
specific simply how related their beliefs and private struggles really
have been. These three males gave their very lives combating for a similar actual
factor—the fundamental civil rights of their fellow man, irrespective of that they every
went about it in their very own, if politically contradicting, manner.
THE POWER OF WORDS
Creator Ta-Nehisi Coates lately posed the Question Assignment as as to whether
or not James Baldwin was the best essayist of all time. Some
of his written work undisputedly stands among the many nice American
publications, and I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO takes pains to lend Baldwin’s
voice huge gravity, having his written phrase learn aloud by noneother-than Samuel L. Jackson, whereas Baldwin himself comes throughout as
exceptionally eloquent when talking publicly and on digicam. The
movie wholly rests upon the facility of his phrases, because the entirety of its
development is shaped from his writings and his on digicam appearances.
That is certainly not a fault within the movie, however its power.
“Individuals cling
to their hates
so stubbornly
as a result of they
sense as soon as hate
is gone, they’ll
be pressured to deal
with ache.”
– James Baldwin
“A nation that
continues
yr after
yr to spend
extra money
on navy
protection than
on applications of
social uplift is
a approaching
religious dying.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Dialogue Information I Am Not Your Negro 2
FURTHER DISCUSSIONS:
1. How did you first react to the movie upon watching it?
2. Have been you conversant in James Baldwin’s literary work or civil rights
activism earlier than watching I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO? In that case, how?
three. Although I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO takes up the duty of adapting
Baldwin’s unfinished work about his fellow civil rights icons, the movie
appears to middle on Baldwin himself, as if it’s a memior. Did this
delicate steadiness of material give you the results you want?
four. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is an unapologetic and direct title. How did
you react if you first heard the movie’s title. Why?
5. A lot of Baldwin’s written works, overtly discover homosexual and bisexual
themes, although I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO fully skirts the actual fact
that Baldwin himself was a gay. Did you’re taking challenge with this
reality? Why do you suppose the filmmaker selected to do that?
6. Inside the movie, Baldwin’s written phrase is learn and embodied by the
actor Samuel L. Jackson, whose interpretation sounds nothing like
Baldwin himself. How did you’re feeling about this juxtaposition?
7. Of the three males—Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm
X—about whom Baldwin writes, which did you find out about most? Did
you already know so much about a number of of those males? In that case, did
you be taught something new from the movie?
Eight. In evaluating archival footage from the 1950s and 1960s with
footage of police violence shot modern with the movie’s launch
some 60 years later, director Raoul Peck appears to argue that the
high quality of life for many African Individuals has not elevated a lot
because the daybreak of the civil rights motion. How do you’re feeling about
this?
9. Structurally, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is an essay movie, shifting
between archival footage, interviews, and readings of Baldwin’s
writings. Since Baldwin is named one among America’s best
essayists, did you’re feeling this was an applicable cinematic tribute to
him?
10. What was your best takeaway from the movie?
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NOTES:
Dialogue Information I Am Not Your Negro three
FILM FACTS:
WAYS TO INFLUENCE
1. Learn James Baldwin’s written works, from his monumental essays like “The Fireplace Subsequent Time,” to his novels “Go
Inform It on the Mountain.”
2. Be a part of an area social justice group to Help construct sturdy, various, sustainable communities.
three. Know your civil rights motion historical past. There are numerous fiction movies, documentaries, and books on the
topic which can be deserving of your consideration.
four. Unfold the phrase on Twitter and Fb. #BeTheChange you wish to see on the earth. #IAmNotYourNegro
is now out there on VOD and Blu-ray/DVD!
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• I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO had its world premiere
on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant on
September 10, 2016, profitable the Individuals’s
Alternative Award. It went on to display screen as a part of
the New York Movie Pageant, AFI Fest, the Berlin
Worldwide Movie Pageant, CPH:DOX, and lots of
different prestigious festivals the world over.
• The movie was nominated for an Oscar for
Greatest Documentary Characteristic, however misplaced to Ezra
Edelman’s Eight-hour epic “O.J.: Made In America.”
Nonetheless, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO was awarded
the Inventive Recognition Award by the
Worldwide Documentary Affiliation, as effectively
because the Amnesty Worldwide Award from the
Thessaloniki Documentary Movie Pageant, the
Gilda Vieira de Mello Award from the Human
Rights Watch Movie Pageant, and the Panorama
Viewers Award from the Berlin Worldwide
Movie Pageant.
• The three topics of Baldwin’s unfinished
work “Keep in mind This Home” have been civil rights
activists Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin
Luther King Jr., every of whom was assassinated.
Evers was killed on June 12, 1963 at his residence
in Jackson, Mississippi, at age 37. Malcolm was
killed on February 21, 1965 in Manhattan, New
York, at age 39. King was killed on April four, 1968 in
Memphis, Tennessee, at age 39.
• James Baldwin’s first novel, “Go Inform It on the
Mountain,” was revealed by Knopf in 1953. In
1998, the Fashionable Library ranked it 39th on its checklist
of the 100 greatest English-language novels of the
20th century.
• Director Raoul Peck was born in Haiti in 1953.
He finally moved to the Congo and went to
college in america, France, and eventually,
Germany, the place he earned a level in movie in
1988. From March 1996 to September 1997, he
was Haiti’s Minister of Tradition.
• Following Baldwin’s dying in 1987, the publishing
firm McGraw-Hill sued his property to recuperate
the $200,000 advance that they had paid him for the
unfinished e book “Keep in mind This Home,” which I
AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is predicated upon. The lawsuit
was finally dropped in 1990.
• By the tip of its theatrical run, I AM NOT YOUR
NEGRO had turn into the best documentary
field workplace hit of 2017, netting over $7 million
in ticket gross sales. Surpassing “Meals Inc.,” the movie
grew to become the highest-grossing non-fiction launch
so far for its distributor Magnolia Photos.
Dialogue Information I Am Not Your Negro four
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We consider a superb documentary
is only the start…
Affect Movie Membership is a not-for-profit devoted to increasing audiences
for documentary movies.
In a world of sound-bites, documentaries present a possibility
to suppose, perceive, share, and join with the world.
They’re controversial, divisive, fascinating, surprising, and
shocking. They are often thrillers, dramas, comedies, romance,
tear-jerkers, and horror movies.
Documentaries present the right matter for significant
conversations. If you wish to speak in regards to the issues that matter
with those that matter then choose a movie, invite your mates, and
watch & focus on collectively. It’s as straightforward as that.
—
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SUMMARY OF THE FILM
James Baldwin left behind solely 30 pages of an incomplete e book venture when he died in 1987.
“Keep in mind This Home” is the title of the tune. It was alleged to be a firsthand account of fellow civil rights leaders’ rise and collapse.
Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X have been three folks he had met earlier than.
Assassinations have been carried out on them. Director Raoul Peck seeks to weave collectively these disparate components, choosing up the place Baldwin left off.
strands of the story utilizing solely Baldwin’s phrases, through shockingly precognitive video snippets of Baldwin in
Samuel L. Jackson provides interviews or lectures, in addition to earthily interpreted readings of Baldwin’s texts. In consequence, a
interpretative essayistic documentary that appears at how the civil rights wrestle and America’s historical past have influenced one different.
