I Am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro is something far more than a film about the author James Baldwin. It builds on an unpublished manuscript by Baldwin in which he reflects on his own experience of the American civil rights struggle and the assassinations of its most influential leaders: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.. Taking Baldwin’s text as a starting point, director Raoul Peck explores the tenacity of racism in the United States, which is manifest not only in the violence committed against black men and women, but in the images that permeate American culture.

The film is both complex and hard-hitting. Even though Baldwin has been dead for over thirty years, his analysis is still valid today: If the United States is to survive and heal as a nation, African Americans cannot continue to be blamed blamed for social problems caused by the fear and intolerance of the white majority. I Am Not Your Negro is one of the most important films of the year, and a major work in the history of documentary filmmaking. CF

Raoul Peck (b. 1953) is a filmmaker residing in France, USA and Haiti. He studied film at the German Film and TV Academy DFFB, and following his breakthrough feature Lumumba (2000) he has directed a number of fiction and documentary films. Peck served as Minister of Culture in Haiti and is currently president at the renowned French film school La Fémis.

PIX POLITICS: the US

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO: LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Mon. 12. June, 17:30 Saga 2

Even though Baldwin has been dead for over thirty years, his analysis is as valid today as it was when it was written: If USA is to have a future as a nation, African Americans can’t keep getting blamed for social problems created by white peoples’ fear and intolerance. What can Baldwin and the film tell us about racism as it manifests itself in the United States today – and in Norway?

We invite to a conversation after the screening of Peck’s documentary on Monday June 12th. Panel participants: Anthropologist Sindre Bangstad, writer for Morgenbladet Mohamed Abdi and artist and activist Nosizwe Baqwa.