I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO – Review

James Baldwin (center), in I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo credit: Dan Budnik © All right reserved.

Despite its awkward title, director Raoul Peck’s documentary I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is a surprisingly timely film, even though it’s focus, author James Baldwin, died nearly 30 years ago. The film is an Oscar nominee in the documentary category, and a strong contender to win.

This is an astounding film – engrossing, even entertaining, visually inventive and beautifully constructed, all in a spare 93 minutes. Throughout the film, Baldwin comes across as a man of great intellectual prowess, dignity and warm humanity. It is startling how much of Baldwin’s Civil Rights era social commentary still applies today. The title comes from something Baldwin says in an interview, heard near the film’s end, and is a sort of weary request to be taken as himself, a unique human mind, rather than an entity fitted into a box labeled “Negro.” That term seems dated but the sentiment Baldwin expresses is timeless.

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO opens with insistent music, a screen divided into black and white blocks, and the clacking sounds of a typewriter, as words describing its basic subject appear. In 1979, Baldwin began work on a book telling his story of America through the lives and assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Using a mix of stills and footage from the Black Lives Matter movement and other contemporary events, and archival visual material, the documentary is built around the acclaimed author, intellectual and social commentator’s last unfinished book, “Remember This House.” Baldwin completed a mere 30 pages of his work on Malcolm, Martin and Medgar, all of whom were close friends of Baldwin. Often the documentary adds Baldwin’s words printed on-screen as Samuel L. Jackson provides voice-over narration.

James Baldwin and Medgar Evers. Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

The words are drawn entirely from Baldwin’s writings. Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript is the major focus but other of Baldwin’s writings are included and supplemented by extensive footage of Baldwin himself on camera. The documentary serves as a sort of introduction to Baldwin’s work, as well as a look at how much about race in American remains unchanged from the Civil Rights era. It is remarkable how much of Baldwin’s observations on American society have proven prescient but the author’s ever-present optimism about humanity is uplifting.

This is an intensely visual, music-filled film, which the director aptly describes as a kaleidoscope. Director Raoul Peck was born in Haiti, a country that freed itself from slavery early on, grew up in New York, and has lived in several places around the world. The director’s personal experience gives this film a fresh take on its subject. Peck lets Baldwin do the talking but makes his points through the images we see with those words.

All the words are Baldwin’s, although we hear Samuel L. Jackson’s famous voice reading them. Still, it is the less-familiar voice of Baldwin himself that is most hypnotic in this film. It is a rich, even seductive, and erudite voice that seems mismatched for the author’s less-imposing physical appearance. Baldwin’s style of speaking is so intimate, so personal, as well as brilliant, that one feels as if he is speaking to you directly and personally. Baldwin’s well-modulated tones and astonishingly quick wit, which seems to go straight to the heart of the matter with remarkable insight every time, make the archival footage of the author in talk-show discussions or interviews some of the most engrossing portions of the documentary.

Baldwin was a film buff, and Peck includes some of Baldwin’s commentary on Hollywood, its depiction of race and attitudes towards black actors, which sounds especially timely now. The film includes footage of Civil Rights protests in the South, which Baldwin, a Northerner who moved to France as a young man, observed first-hand and covered as an outsider. Some of the most fascinating footage is from interviews with the author and from appearances on the Dick Cavett talk show, where Baldwin’s chain-smoking and restless energy present a vibrant personal presence, and his genius and verbal skills pointedly reduce lesser intellects on the subjects of American society and race.

It is unexpected to find a film that is so intellectually engaging, so informative and at the same time, so enjoyable to watch. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is a must-see film for all, and an invigorating experience.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars