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 "I Am Not Your Negro," the Oscar-nominated documentary now in
limited U.S. theaters, takes Baldwin's 30-page unfinished
manuscript on the racial divide during the civil rights era and
places it against current racial tensions and the Black Lives
Matter movement.
Baldwin's words "feel as if just this morning he wrote them
down," said director Raoul Peck, who spent ten years making the
film.
"His analysis of this country, the description, his knowledge of
this country is rooted in something very fundamental," Peck told
Reuters.
Baldwin died in 1987 at the age of 63. In the years before his
death, he had begun crafting a book about three of his friends -
Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evers - all of
whom were assassinated in the 1960s, cutting short their pursuit
of justice and equality for the black community in the United
States.
"I Am Not Your Negro" has received strong critical praise and
has already grossed $2 million at the U.S. box office since its
limited Feb. 3 release.
In the film, Baldwin's words, read by actor Samuel L. Jackson, are
heard as voiceover on scenes from Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014,
during protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed
black man, at the hands of a white police officer. The
demonstrations helped to coalesce the Black Lives Matter movement
nationally.
Baldwin also ponders how black men and women are perceived within
America.
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"He tried to explain this so-called 'dream' that is not a dream for
everybody," Peck said.
The documentary includes clips of Hollywood movies in which actors
like John Wayne and Doris Day appear in leading roles as the hero,
while black actors often played slaves, maids or sidekicks.
The Haiti-born Peck included the scenes in a "critical way because
it's about this image that Hollywood has been propagating, and it's
not really the reality."
Hollywood still needs to be more inclusive of diverse filmmakers, he
added.
"We cannot keep wishing every year if there are going to be more
women's films, more gay films, more black films, because ultimately
we're going to continue to make our films, whether it's hard or
easy."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by G Crosse)
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