Giveaway: Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro DVD

Raoul Peck’s documentary about James Baldwin, titled I Am Not Your Negro, has won unanimously high praise from critics and audiences but been limited in Australia to short cinema seasons. Now it’s available on DVD from Madman and is a viewing opportunity not to be missed.

Lauren Carroll Harris, who saw I Am Not Your Negro at this year’s Sydney Film Festival, wrote on Junkee, “What sets this film apart from other political docos is its profound emotionality. Spoken in melodious, low tones by Samuel L Jackson, Baldwin’s words ring out with an eloquent rage and passion that cannot be contained by the film frame. Peck pairs the sound with montages of the Black Lives Matter protests and portraits of Trayvon Martin and black youths slain by police in the last five years.”

The power of the film as a reflection on the inadequacies of the American psyche (and, by analogy, our own) was captured by Siddhartha Mitter on Hyperallergic:

“In the film, [Baldwin] refers to white America as ‘monstrous’ at least three times. He explains why: because people in the US are caught between narratives as to who they actually are and who they want to be, and narcotising, populist television circulates a story that always emphasizes the latter…The film left me with questions that I suspect won’t be answered in my lifetime, because successive generations of Americans have been brought up with the conviction that they need never understand anyone, not even themselves. How do I live with that?”

We have 5 copies to give away, courtesy of Madman Entertainment.

Email us at giveaways [at] realtimearts.net by 5pm 19 December with your name, postal address and phone number to be in the running.

Include ‘Giveaway’ and the name of the item in the subject line.

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