‘I Am Not Your Negro’ — An Afterthought
Raoul Peck’s documentary brings to the forefront, a grim collage: featuring Jackson’s narration over Baldwin’s lectures on racial ideology, his letters and anecdotes, and the FBI memorandums associated with him.
By Usman Shah
“The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.”
These words are said in the documentary film towards its end; their meaning, however, is expressed again and again, throughout the film, much before they appear. ‘I am not your Negro’ is then the story of America and its ways. Written by James Baldwin as an unfinished 30-page manuscript, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the manuscript is artfully rendered, by Raoul Peck, in the form of a film. The film is a grim collage: featuring Jackson’s narration over Baldwin’s lectures on racial ideology, his letters and anecdotes, and the FBI memorandums associated with him.
Posting commentary on the popular culture of Baldwin’s lifetime; the yesteryear’s music, cinema, and television — both the advocating and the lamenting (racism) kind, all mâché-ed together, so dramatically, that it appears to be tinged in Van Gogh’s most melancholic yellow.
