I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (Raoul Peck). 93 minutes. Opens Friday (February 24) at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Its not easy to make a cinematic documentary about a literary icon its the words, not the pictures, that really matter. But when your subject is the uniquely brilliant African-American writer James Baldwin, youre at least working with intellectually and emotionally powerful material.
Raoul Pecks pic nominated for the best documentary Oscar spins off the first 30 pages of the unfinished Baldwin manuscript I Am Not Your Negro. The essay was about what the deaths of Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr. mean for America and the writers own relationship to his country. With readings by Samuel L. Jackson and archival footage of Baldwins debates at Cambridge University and appearances on late-night talk shows, Peck makes the authors vision vivid.
Baldwin wrote extensively about movies in his lifetime, a fact Peck savvily exploits in his effort to make his film work visually. Clips from Hollywood films make apt companions for Baldwins observations about Americas emotional poverty, sexual immaturity and the way the industry caters to the white gaze. A shot of Doris Day in one of her vapid musicals accompanies Baldwins description of Americas wilful myopia about race, what he calls grotesque innocence.
Archival footage of police brutality against Blacks, civil rights demonstrations and post-King-assassination riots are not entirely successful attempts to juice the authors arguments, largely because a lot of it has been seen before.
Its Baldwins ideas that drive the doc, his empathy, his ability to balance his righteous rage with his refusal to hate all whites, his exquisitely formulated observations.
As an unabashed Baldwin fan, a part of me wants to drive you to his written material this guy was a sublimely original thinker. But this doc does well as an entree to him and his essential insights into American anti-Black racism.
