The 2016 Oscar-nominated film “I Am Not Your Negro,” based on the life and writings of the late James Baldwin, will be the focus of a program presented by The History Club/Phi Alpha Theta at Cal State San Bernardino on Thursday, June 8.
The free screening, which is open to the public, will take place at 2 p.m. in the Santos Manuel Student Union Theater, and will be followed by a panel discussion led by A. Rafik Mohamed, dean of CSUSB’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Carlton Floyd, professor of literature at the University of San Diego. Parking at CSUSB is $6.
“Baldwin was a truly brilliant novelist and essayist,” said Mohamed. “While he was black and very often wrote from and about his perspective as an African American, his commentary transcended usual understandings of race. His critique insisted that we view American social interaction and history vertically and fully, and he reminded us that ‘We cannot escape our origins, however hard we try.’”
“I Am Not Your Negro,” directed by Raoul Peck and nominated Best Documentary Film Oscar, is Peck’s vision of a book Baldwin never completed before his death in 1987.
According to a synopsis of the film, “In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, ‘Remember This House.’ The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends — Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
“At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of his manuscript,” the synopsis says. “Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.”
To help those attending the screening put the film in the context of Baldwin’s perspective, the panelists suggest reading prior to watching the film two essays written by him. Both are available online: “Nothing Personal,” and “The American Dream and the American Negro.”
A preview of the film can be viewed at “I Am Not Your Negro — Official Trailer.”
Books by James Baldwin and DVDs will be given away in a free raffle.
The screening of “I Am Not Your Negro” was made possible by the CSUSB College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the History Club/Phi Alpha Theta, the CSUSB Department of History, the University Diversity Committee, and the Intellectual Life Fund.
For more information, contact Gonzalo Aguilar at aguig318@coyote.csusb.edu.