On Sunday, Oct. 29, at 2:00 p.m., Raoul Peck will present his film
I Am Not Your Negro.
The Oscar-nominated documentary is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript,
Remember This House.
The event is part of Hamilton’s F.I.L.M. series, which has also included Yance Ford’s
Strong Island
and three films accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra so far this semester. Held in the Bradford Auditorium (KJ 125), the event is free and open to the public.
Raoul Peck first came in contact with James Baldwin’s work for educational purposes. Peck was born in Haiti, but spent time growing up in both the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, and Germany. While studying at Humboldt University in Berlin, Peck befriended some black Americans who recounted their experiences with racism and oppression, prompting him to reflect on his own childhood. Seeing that blackness in America seemed fundamentally different from the blackness he had been experiencing his whole life, Peck was troubled and perplexed. His friends lent him some of Baldwin’s work to help him better understand American racism.
Directed by Peck and narrated by Samuel L. Jackson,
I Am Not Your Negro
follows friends of Baldwin and leaders of the civil rights movement Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers. Although the film pivots around historical events, it directly relates to contemporary issues.
Regarding Baldwin’s work, Peck remarked to the
LA Times
, “if you take any books of Baldwin and start reading, you’re not reading about the past, you’re reading about today.” His documentary carries on that spirit, emphasizing the continuity of the civil rights movement in today’s sociopolitical climate. Racism is not historical, but remains ubiquitous in American society. Baldwin’s words and Peck’s cinematography work in tandem to paint an incisive portrait of the struggle against racism, from the 20th Century through the present day.
The film has received numerous accolades since its premiere at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, including an Oscar nomination, a 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 96 percent on Metacritic. At the Toronto Film Festival it won the People’s Choice Award after its premiere, and since has won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Film and the International Documentary Society Creative Recognition Award for Best Writing.
I Am Not Your Negro
was preceded in Peck’s career by
Lumumba
, a feature film about Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the DRC.
Lumumba
details the future Prime Minister’s journey as he works to help the Congo gain independence from Belgium, and as he takes the role of the DRC’s first democratically elected Prime Minister in 1960.
Lumumba
was screened in the Bradford Auditorium on Oct. 23 as a precursor to the next installment of the Hamilton College F.I.L.M. Series, which continues throughout the semester. Be on the lookout for more content about the series!
