8th PCI Film Series – I Am Not Your Negro

The Postcolonial Studies Initiative is happy to announce its 8th film series with a selection of films, shown monthly, that draw on a variety of different contexts in our postcolonial world. Please join us for our upcoming screening with the film I Am Not Your Negro, which will be introduced by Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken. 

Directed by Haitian-born Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, is a radical documentary about race in America today  based on James Baldwin’s unfinished book Remember This House.  Peck  has created one of the most progressive filmographies in cinema history. He received privileged access to the Baldwin archives because the family knew of his outstanding works on the Conga leader, Patrice Lumumba, specifically the 1990 political thriller Lumumba: Death of a Prophet and the 2000 award winning drama on the same subject, Lumumba. They trusted in his ability to accurately represent Baldwin’s life and writings, and so he took 10 years to bring this masterpiece to the screen, after being rejected by every American studio he approached. And public agencies said “this is public money so you have to present both sides!” Thus, his ability to produce this film through his own successful company and a supportive French TV station ARTE, allowed him to make a film exactly like he wanted, with no censorship, and no one telling him to rush the film or mellow the message. Peck “didn’t want to use the traditional civil rights archives.” He chose to avoid the talking heads format and picked Samuel L. Jackson to embody the spirit of Baldwin in the potent narration. The film’s powerful structure utilizing rare videos and photos and personal writings of Baldwin, and at the same time aligning them with contemporary issues of police brutality and race relations, creates a mesmerizing awareness of the continuity in the struggle for civil rights.

Practical information
I Am Not Your Negro (2017, dir. Raoul Peck, France, United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Omar Shargawi, Egypt, Denmark)
Date: 12 February
Time: 17.15 – 19.30
Location: Entrance at Muntstraat 2A, MCW-LAB (Grote zaal KNG20)

Admission is free of charge. However, due to safety regulations, maximum capacity of the room is 80 people. No exceptions are made. First come, first seated.