Interview: Raoul Peck on His Timely Documentary, I Am Not Your Negro

Haunting and relevant are two of the first words that come to mind when taking about Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro. For ninety minutes, Samuel L. Jackson channels the voice of James Baldwin, taking us on a complex multi-layered journey, examining the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1979, Baldwin started to write Remember This House, which told the story of his three friends; Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. All three had died tragically, and Baldwin died having only written 30 pages of his manuscript.

Peck’s history with Baldwin goes back years. He grew up reading Baldwin’s work. Since it was Baldwin’s work that helped shape the man he is today, Peck felt a voice was missing in today’s society, and that voice was James Baldwin. Peck spent over ten years bringing I Am Not Your Negro to the screen, working to honor Baldwin’s voice and work.

The end result is a searing look at the Civil Rights Movement  through Baldwin’s eyes, and how he often saw the narrative controlled by white people. Peck draws clear lines between the Civil Rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s and the movement of today, and the parallels are frequently stunning.  I caught up with Peck to talk about taking on Baldwin’s work and paying proper cinematic tribute to his singular voice.

Read our discussion below:

Awards Daily: How did this all happen for you with you being entrusted with the book?

Raoul Peck: I grew up with James Baldwin. He’s an important part of who I am today. He helped me understand the world around me and he helped me understand my own world. He gave me the instruments to do my own deconstruction.

I would never have thought to do a film about him until much later when I realized his voice was missing. I can’t imagine that this man who gave so much to so many people didn’t have a voice. I thought we were living in a world with so much ignorance and thought it was time to bring him back.

Once I had that feeling and that obligation, I started searching for the rights. I met representatives of his estate, and they opened the doors for me, adopting me. They gave me access to everything, which is unprecedented. They never came back to me asking where was the film? It was the impossible film to make.

I produced it so I could control the decisions and also that gave me freedom to leave it and return to it. That was really important to me in the making of it. Otherwise, I would never have been capable of creating all those different layers in the film.

To answer the question, I had spent four years working on it, trying different approaches with the documentary and narrative, but I just wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t who he was. What I wanted were his words. One day, Gloria Karefa-Smart, his assistant gave me the pages for Remember This House. It wasn’t even a manuscript, it really was just pages of notes with the title. The story was about three friends who were assassinated before the age of 40, and they were important figures in the Civil Rights Movement, and right there was this incredible story. No one else before Baldwin had this idea to tell the story of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers, and through those names to tell the story of America.

I had access to all his work and I knew the film was possible, and it was my duty to piece it all together and ensure it was as powerful as Baldwin would have been able to have made it.

AD: Did you feel the responsibility to do that justice?

RP: Absolutely. That’s why I spent four years searching. I had the notes and knew what it could be. When I started, I decided I wanted the film to only use his words — meaning I couldn’t write half a sentence to adapt a paragraph. It had to be only his words, and that was a challenge.

I knew that would be the price I had to pay for authenticity. That way no one would comment or dare critic that they’re dealing with Baldwin and not me, Peck. Whatever is said in this film is him.

AD: You have such a great wealth of footage in the film. How did the events of society impact the film as you were working on it?

RP: From the start, I wanted it to be a Baldwin classic. I had to make sure that whatever was going to happen I had to use footage that would not date the film. When events like this happen, it’s easy to say, “I’m going to include it.” When you do that, you go from a fundamental film to something that is closer to news, and I’m not making news.

I want the film to be as creative and strong in thirty years as it is now. Even though there were events happening, I had to find a way to find a symbolic way to include them rather than in their actuality.

Of course, Ferguson was symbolic, but there was much more than that. You could use that because of what happened and what it provoked. It became a symbol. I didn’t use Black Lives Matter with people crying in the streets or protesting, I used it in a discreet way.

I tried to find a way that made it evident but not to make it didactic or news. It’s a double-edged sword, because you have to make it modern and timely, but you still have to make it fundamental to what you’re doing.

AD: Your editing is just that. It’s timeless. I could have seen this twenty years ago, and it would be timely, and I could show it to my grandchildren and have the same timeless quality. Talk about how you edited the film.

RP: It was such a long and important process. The first major work that I had to do was create the libretto of the whole film, I needed a solid basis. My first edit was almost three hours of film, it was all Baldwin and exclusively him, with a beginning, middle and end. The story of the men was the main storyline.

From that edit, I started adding the layers and had to find a dramatic structure to it. I added in James seeing his first film as a ten-year-old, then crossed it with the rest of the story, and so on, finding other pieces that crossed.

I built layer upon layer in the editing process. I was going back to the book, discovering footnotes, that led me to another image, tune or another person who I could reference. It was almost like a detective story, but the main thing was making sure I wasn’t going around in circles, but moving progressively.

It’s a complex process, but you had to be disciplined. If I didn’t have the right clip, I needed to watch other clips to find the right now. You can only proceed once you have your content to move forward.

I was working on other projects and left my editor to work on it, and we would go away, come back, and look at it with fresh eyes. In doing that, we were able to see what was superficial and what was essential to the project.

There are no short cuts. The more time you have and the more time you invest, the more layers you can find and add, and make the film richer.

AD: There are narrators and then there’s Samuel L. Jackson.

RP: I had used the voice of a musician who lived in Paris. Once I had the text, I needed someone to read it. I edited it with that voice and was experimenting with it. After 2 or 3 edits I could ask him to make changes and it was always a work in progress. By the time we got to the last two, I had a precise idea of what I needed for this voice, I thought there was no way the voice could be a narrator. I needed someone to be the text to create a character, so you’re with the voice and you wouldn’t ask questions. When you see Baldwin on screen speaking and the next cut hears that voice, you’re not asking whether that’s him. There’s only that voice, that one voice.

Samuel L. Jackson was first on my list. I needed someone who was well known, but someone who was a great actor. He’s an incredible actor and can invent them. Whether a film he makes is good or bad, his characters are always original, I knew I needed someone like that.

I needed someone who has street credibility. Someone who means something. Each time I heard him talking, it always makes sense, and he says what he thinks. I really liked that aspect about him.

He immediately said yes when I asked him, and at the premiere, he said, “I understood those words immediately because I came from the South. Those words by Baldwin made complete sense to me.” That’s how he could be the voice. From within his soul.

I Am Not Your Negro is released on February, 3