{"id":6302,"date":"2024-10-19T23:05:29","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T03:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6302"},"modified":"2024-10-19T23:05:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T03:05:29","slug":"i-am-not-your-negro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/19\/i-am-not-your-negro\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am Not Your Negro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> (2016)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magnolia\/Documentary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (disturbing violent images, thematic material, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Raoul Peck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Baldwin and Raoul Peck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alexei Aigui\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 3, 2017 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Samuel L. Jackson (narrator), James Baldwin (archival), Dick Cavett (archival).<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of this year\u2019s nominees for Best Documentary Feature, I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> is a searing, stirring portrait of the black experience in America through the eyes and words of James Baldwin, the late author\/social critic upon whose final (unfinished) book the movie is based. At the time of his death in 1987, Baldwin had just begun work on Remember This House, a memoir of his personal recollections of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., all of whom were murdered in the 60s. If the enthusiastic reaction I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> received when the end credits started to roll is any indication, it\u2019s one that will be remembered even if it doesn\u2019t take home the golden statuette.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If nothing else, I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> is a wakeup call to all those who have turned a blind eye to the problem of racism in our country. Even though the Civil Rights Act was passed more than 50 years ago, racism still exists. It can be seen- at least by Baldwin anyway- in virtually every facet of American life, especially in how they\u2019ve been depicted in the media over the years. This is what I took away from I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The unfinished book in question is actually 30 pages of notes compiled by Baldwin for his opus. Actor Samuel L. Jackson has the honor of reading the man\u2019s words which he does eloquently and elegantly. Now here\u2019s where I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> differs from the typical documentary. Instead of focusing solely on the man and Lord knows he\u2019s that fascinating a figure, it shows how he saw and wrote about the world around him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sadly, not a lot of footage of Baldwin exists despite his many appearances on TV in the 60s. What little there is shows he had real screen presence. He was intelligent, well-spoken, authoritative and dignified. He spoke mainly on issues regarding race and prejudice. He was angry, but never indignant. In the movie\u2019s opening scene, an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, philosopher Paul Weiss tells Baldwin he\u2019s making too much of race, an assertion with which he clearly disagrees. He gets his point across without things getting ugly. The man had class.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> employs the use of archival news footage, old photos and movie clips to illustrate Baldwin\u2019s points. He talks about his early crush on Joan Crawford after seeing her in 1931\u2019s Dance, Fools, Dance when he was eight. He also discusses at length his issues with actors like Gary Cooper and John Cooper and how they\u2019re emblematic of a culture that\u2019s used to keeping non-whites down. Director Raoul Peck (Lumumba) takes it a step further by juxtaposing scenes from Doris Day musicals like The Pajama Game and Lover Come Back against images of blacks being lynched in the Old South in order to show the differences between white and black America in history. One of his most memorable anecdotes is describing an audience\u2019s reaction to the scene in The Defiant Ones (1958) where Sidney Poitier jumps off a freight train to help Tony Curtis who has fallen off. The whites cheered while the blacks yelled, \u201cWhat are you doing?!\u201d It\u2019s this aspect of I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> that interested me the most.<\/p>\n

Although I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> is NOT specifically biographical, Baldwin talks about his life. He talks about his childhood and the white schoolteacher who took him under her wing and exposed him to intellectual pursuits (e.g. history, philosophy and cinema) even though it made her an outcast among her own people. He goes on to say he doesn\u2019t hate white people, but he does hate being treated as though his anger is wrong and unjustified. Why is it, he wonders, that when a white man says \u201cGive me liberty or give me death\u201d, he\u2019s hailed as a hero, but if a black man says the same thing, he\u2019s vilified. It\u2019s one of the many discrepancies relating to race in America.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the great things I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> does is give us an overview of black history from slavery up the assassination of MLK Jr. In addition, Peck links many of Baldwin\u2019s observations to current events like the Ferguson protests and the recent Presidential election. He also gives us a montage of photos of young black men killed by the police over the past few years. The one part that really stands out (for me anyway) is the 1966 clip of Robert Kennedy predicting that we\u2019ll have a black president in 40 years. Who knew then how prophetic that statement was?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ultimately, I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> doesn\u2019t show racism as an abstract concept, but as one that affects ordinary folks in everyday life. It\u2019s intelligent but accessible. It also paints a portrait of one of the most compelling figures in the fight for racial equality. Since Baldwin was gay, he also spoke out for sexual equality. No question he was a controversial figure, but so were the three men he was writing his book about when he died. I\u2019m ashamed to admit I never heard of Baldwin until seeing this outstanding film. It\u2019s gripping for all the right reasons. It\u2019s well put together. Most importantly, it\u2019s very thought-provoking. It may even ruffle a few feathers. I like that it\u2019s being released at the beginning of Black History Month. What Baldwin had to say was fascinating and still resonates today. Racial relations have improved significantly since the days of segregation, lynchings and lunch counter sit-ins, but we still have a long way to go. I Am Not Your Negro<\/strong> is a push in the right direction.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Magnolia\/Documentary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (disturbing violent images, thematic material, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Raoul Peck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Baldwin and Raoul Peck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alexei Aigui\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 3, 2017 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Samuel L. Jackson (narrator), James Baldwin (archival), Dick Cavett (archival). Rating: **** \u00a0One of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-documentary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/I-Am-Not-Your-Negro-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6302"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6435,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302\/revisions\/6435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}