The history of America is the history of the Negro in America. And its not a pretty picture. These words were written by James Baldwin, the African-American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and fierce social critic. When the man of letters died in 1987, he had finished only 30 pages of what would have been his magnum opus, Remember This House, consisting of tales torn from the lives and murders of three of Baldwins closest friends: the civil-rights pioneers Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The book never happened, but the movie I Am Not Your Negro, directed by the Haiti-born filmmaker and activist Raoul Peck using Baldwins own words, is alive and kicking ass. Nominated for an Academy Award as the years best documentary, this chronicle of a long, hard (and ongoing) struggle will compete with two other probing docs about race in America Ava DuVernays 13th and Ezra Edelmans mammoth, seven-hour OJ: Made in America. Pecks film stands tall even in that distinguished company. Its unmissable and unforgettable.
In archival footage, culled from Baldwins university speeches and guest spots on The Dick Cavett Show, we see the man himself, breathing eloquent fire. Samuel L. Jackson narrates in the authors voice with supreme style and fluency, reducing his booming tones to suggest Baldwins hushed fervor. Its a remarkable piece of voice acting. The clips, expertly edited by Alexandra Strauss, contrast the horrific past with an ever-scarier present and illustrate how Baldwins words echo with equal urgency today especially when the concept of #blacklivesmatter faces fresh peril. Its not far from the 1960s scenes of police brutality in the South to clips of Rodney King and the tragedy of Ferguson. Peck is also astute in using Baldwins words about pop culture, especially films, such as The Defiant Ones and Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, to show how racism is wired into the most seemingly liberal pieties. The writer was persecuted on suspicions of being homosexual by F.B.I. hypocrite J. Edgar Hoover; he later fled to France, where he died.
'I Am Not Your Negro': How a New Doc Turns James Baldwin Into a Prophet25 Songs That Are Truly TerrifyingThurston Moore: 5 Songs That Influenced Me Early On
But his influence, from Notes of a Native Son to The Fire Next Time and The Devil Finds Work, is still being felt. Watching him in his patented uniform of dark suit, white shirt and skinny tie his hooded eyes flashing as he speaks truth to pissed-off power Baldwin remains a resonant force three decades after his death. Would he be validated or appalled, you wonder, to know that his words have lost none of their sting.