Storyweb: Storytime For Grownups

This week on StoryWeb: James Baldwin and Raoul Peck’s film, I Am Not Your Negro. I want to close out African American History Month with a look at a new documentary directed by Raoul Peck. I Am Not Your Negro features a range of James Baldwin’s writings as well as rare television appearances and footage of Baldwin speaking at a variety of events. Indeed, Baldwin’s writing and speaking are so central to this film that he is listed as the primary screenwriter, with Peck as compiler and editor. The words are powerful indeed – Baldwin at his peak of cultural commentary. But as hard as it is to believe, the film is so much more even than Baldwin’s powerful writing and compelling speaking. Adding depth, complexity, nuance, and more than one emotional jolt is Peck’s expert direction. He achieves the seemingly impossible: collaborating with Baldwin thirty years after the famed writer’s death. Here’s the story of I Am Not Your Negro. In 1979, Baldwin wrote to his agent, Jay Acton, with a thirty-page proposal for a new