I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck

by James Baldwin

Book Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - In his final years, Baldwin envisioned a book about his three assassinated friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. His deeply personal notes for the project had never been published before acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck mined Baldwin's oeuvre to compose his stunning documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.

Peck weaves these texts together, brilliantly imagining the book that Baldwin never wrote with selected published and unpublished passages, essays, letters, notes, and interviews that are every bit as incisive and pertinent now as they have ever been. Peck's film uses them to jump through time, juxtaposing Baldwin's private words with his public statements, in a blazing examination of the tragic history of race in America.

This edition contains more than 40 black-and-white images from the film, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525434690
• ISBN13: 9780525434696
• Release Date: February 2017
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Emotionally powerful

I Am Not Your Negro gives insight to the frustrating experiences of being black in America. Some parts were genuinely disheartening. This book/documentary paints a bleak picture for the prospects of African Americans during the Civil Rights Era. I can't imagine what James Baldwin must have felt when he saw his three close friends (Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr.) die in quick succession. After finishing this book I wondered what powerful work of art that "Remember This House" would have been if James Baldwin had the chance to finish it. Raoul Peck did a great work piecing together this work of art with the resources and materials he had. Highly recommended.