Documentary cinema fans in Los Angeles and New York are being treated to special screenings of Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro starting on December 9. Magnolia Pictures has partnered with Maysles Cinema, Metrograph, and Cinemark Baldwin Hills for the advanced preview. The film will then see its wide release on February 3, when it will also become available to screen on Amazon.
I Am Not Your Negro premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and won the People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary. The film was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award this past week.
The documentary is based off of James Baldwin’s unfinished book Remember This House, a book in which Baldwin began to recount the lives and successive assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Baldwin’s notes and unfinished writing was entrusted to Peck by the Baldwin Estate. Samuel L. Jackson narrates the documentary, which weaves the 30 finished pages of the book into a captivating tale of murder, politics, race, and martyrdom in America.
According to Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles,
‘I Am Not Your Negro’ is a singular, essential film that has received rapturous responses at every one of our screenings this fall. Given the current social climate, we are planning one of our most aggressive theatrical releases ever for a documentary.
For an entire week in December, each participating theater will host special panels surrounding the film, featuring various artists, politicians, academics, activists, and organizers (to be named) along with director Peck to discuss the possible impact of Baldwin’s work on our own social atmosphere.
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