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<\/a>11.30.16<\/p><\/div>\n
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\u2018I Am Not Your Negro\u2019:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\nHow Hollywood\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\nFailed Black America<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n![\"baldwin\"](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/baldwin.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nRaoul Peck\u2019s documentary, based on
\nan unfinished James Baldwin manuscript,
\nis not only an urgent call to action,
\nbut also one of the very best
\nfilms of the year.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\nBY JEN YAMATO<\/span><\/h4>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nFilmmaker Raoul Peck (Lumumba<\/i>) went through 30 different titles before he zeroed in on\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>, a defiant declaration illustrative of the work of\u00a0influential author James Baldwin<\/a>, whose unpublished letters form the foundation of this year\u2019s most incendiary cinematic call to action. The title also serves as an acute distillation of how systemic racism has cultivated inequality for centuries across the black experience, hammered home in the film\u2019s first few moments as Baldwin\u2019s words ring over images from Ferguson as painfully accurate as they were 50 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cThe first title was\u00a0Remember This House<\/i>, but I realized that each time I said it I would have to explain why I chose this title and where it came from,\u201d the Haitian-born Peck told The Daily Beast during a visit to Los Angeles from Paris, where he is based. \u201cI Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0says, \u2018You cannot define me. I define myself.\u2019 This was James Baldwin\u2019s attitude his whole life:\u00a0I cannot let anyone define who I am<\/i>, whether I\u2019m gay, whether I\u2019m black, whether I\u2019m a writer, whether I\u2019m this or that. This is my\u00a0own<\/i>\u00a0responsibility\u2014to define myself. And I am not a finished product: I am always in construction because I learn, I have experience, and I see the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cThis is an important stand to take,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause that\u2019s the bottom line. You have to define yourself. And you cannot accept anybody defining you in your place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nPeck\u2019s Oscar-hopeful, along with\u00a0Ava DuVernay\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0fellow\u00a0Best Documentary contender\u00a013th<\/sup><\/i><\/a>, is one of the most stirring films of the year in any category. It\u2019s a 10-year labor of love that feels as urgent as ever in today\u2019s America. Drawing from 30 pages of an unfinished manuscript of Baldwin\u2019s linking the lives and murders of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X,\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0also folds in shocking footage of America\u2019s bigoted past and the ways in which white-dominated media, advertisements, and popular film dictated and reinforced the racist stereotypes that formed the nation\u2019s idea of black existence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Failed Black America<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/a><\/div>\nRaoul Peck\u2019s documentary, based on
\nan unfinished James Baldwin manuscript,
\nis not only an urgent call to action,
\nbut also one of the very best
\nfilms of the year.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\nBY JEN YAMATO<\/span><\/h4>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nFilmmaker Raoul Peck (Lumumba<\/i>) went through 30 different titles before he zeroed in on\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>, a defiant declaration illustrative of the work of\u00a0influential author James Baldwin<\/a>, whose unpublished letters form the foundation of this year\u2019s most incendiary cinematic call to action. The title also serves as an acute distillation of how systemic racism has cultivated inequality for centuries across the black experience, hammered home in the film\u2019s first few moments as Baldwin\u2019s words ring over images from Ferguson as painfully accurate as they were 50 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cThe first title was\u00a0Remember This House<\/i>, but I realized that each time I said it I would have to explain why I chose this title and where it came from,\u201d the Haitian-born Peck told The Daily Beast during a visit to Los Angeles from Paris, where he is based. \u201cI Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0says, \u2018You cannot define me. I define myself.\u2019 This was James Baldwin\u2019s attitude his whole life:\u00a0I cannot let anyone define who I am<\/i>, whether I\u2019m gay, whether I\u2019m black, whether I\u2019m a writer, whether I\u2019m this or that. This is my\u00a0own<\/i>\u00a0responsibility\u2014to define myself. And I am not a finished product: I am always in construction because I learn, I have experience, and I see the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cThis is an important stand to take,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause that\u2019s the bottom line. You have to define yourself. And you cannot accept anybody defining you in your place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nPeck\u2019s Oscar-hopeful, along with\u00a0Ava DuVernay\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0fellow\u00a0Best Documentary contender\u00a013th<\/sup><\/i><\/a>, is one of the most stirring films of the year in any category. It\u2019s a 10-year labor of love that feels as urgent as ever in today\u2019s America. Drawing from 30 pages of an unfinished manuscript of Baldwin\u2019s linking the lives and murders of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X,\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0also folds in shocking footage of America\u2019s bigoted past and the ways in which white-dominated media, advertisements, and popular film dictated and reinforced the racist stereotypes that formed the nation\u2019s idea of black existence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n\nan unfinished James Baldwin manuscript,
\nis not only an urgent call to action,
\nbut also one of the very best
\nfilms of the year.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
BY JEN YAMATO<\/span><\/h4>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nFilmmaker Raoul Peck (Lumumba<\/i>) went through 30 different titles before he zeroed in on\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>, a defiant declaration illustrative of the work of\u00a0influential author James Baldwin<\/a>, whose unpublished letters form the foundation of this year\u2019s most incendiary cinematic call to action. The title also serves as an acute distillation of how systemic racism has cultivated inequality for centuries across the black experience, hammered home in the film\u2019s first few moments as Baldwin\u2019s words ring over images from Ferguson as painfully accurate as they were 50 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cThe first title was\u00a0Remember This House<\/i>, but I realized that each time I said it I would have to explain why I chose this title and where it came from,\u201d the Haitian-born Peck told The Daily Beast during a visit to Los Angeles from Paris, where he is based. \u201cI Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0says, \u2018You cannot define me. I define myself.\u2019 This was James Baldwin\u2019s attitude his whole life:\u00a0I cannot let anyone define who I am<\/i>, whether I\u2019m gay, whether I\u2019m black, whether I\u2019m a writer, whether I\u2019m this or that. This is my\u00a0own<\/i>\u00a0responsibility\u2014to define myself. And I am not a finished product: I am always in construction because I learn, I have experience, and I see the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u201cThis is an important stand to take,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause that\u2019s the bottom line. You have to define yourself. And you cannot accept anybody defining you in your place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nPeck\u2019s Oscar-hopeful, along with\u00a0Ava DuVernay\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0fellow\u00a0Best Documentary contender\u00a013th<\/sup><\/i><\/a>, is one of the most stirring films of the year in any category. It\u2019s a 10-year labor of love that feels as urgent as ever in today\u2019s America. Drawing from 30 pages of an unfinished manuscript of Baldwin\u2019s linking the lives and murders of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X,\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0also folds in shocking footage of America\u2019s bigoted past and the ways in which white-dominated media, advertisements, and popular film dictated and reinforced the racist stereotypes that formed the nation\u2019s idea of black existence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Filmmaker Raoul Peck (Lumumba<\/i>) went through 30 different titles before he zeroed in on\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>, a defiant declaration illustrative of the work of\u00a0influential author James Baldwin<\/a>, whose unpublished letters form the foundation of this year\u2019s most incendiary cinematic call to action. The title also serves as an acute distillation of how systemic racism has cultivated inequality for centuries across the black experience, hammered home in the film\u2019s first few moments as Baldwin\u2019s words ring over images from Ferguson as painfully accurate as they were 50 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe first title was\u00a0Remember This House<\/i>, but I realized that each time I said it I would have to explain why I chose this title and where it came from,\u201d the Haitian-born Peck told The Daily Beast during a visit to Los Angeles from Paris, where he is based. \u201cI Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0says, \u2018You cannot define me. I define myself.\u2019 This was James Baldwin\u2019s attitude his whole life:\u00a0I cannot let anyone define who I am<\/i>, whether I\u2019m gay, whether I\u2019m black, whether I\u2019m a writer, whether I\u2019m this or that. This is my\u00a0own<\/i>\u00a0responsibility\u2014to define myself. And I am not a finished product: I am always in construction because I learn, I have experience, and I see the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis is an important stand to take,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause that\u2019s the bottom line. You have to define yourself. And you cannot accept anybody defining you in your place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Peck\u2019s Oscar-hopeful, along with\u00a0Ava DuVernay\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0fellow\u00a0Best Documentary contender\u00a013th<\/sup><\/i><\/a>, is one of the most stirring films of the year in any category. It\u2019s a 10-year labor of love that feels as urgent as ever in today\u2019s America. Drawing from 30 pages of an unfinished manuscript of Baldwin\u2019s linking the lives and murders of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X,\u00a0I Am Not Your Negro<\/i>\u00a0also folds in shocking footage of America\u2019s bigoted past and the ways in which white-dominated media, advertisements, and popular film dictated and reinforced the racist stereotypes that formed the nation\u2019s idea of black existence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n