I Am Not Your Negro Takes Paris by Storm

Raoul Peck's 94-minute documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, debuted in Paris last week and is taking the city by storm. It is receiving extensive media coverage and has already been shown on Arté, the French-German cultural television station, along with a two-part interview with Peck. Arté showed a dubbed version of the film, with French singer and actor Joey Starr providing the voiceover.

I Am Not Your Negro
Screenshot from Arté TV

Raoul Peck interview
Screenshot from Arté TV
The avant-première took place at the Arlequin Cinema, rue de Rennes, on May 5. Director Peck was present.

On May 10, opening day, the documentary was shown simultaneously at three locations. Attendees at each screening got to interact with intellectuals, film critics and others who have viewed and studied the film.

Tom and I attended a screening of the original language version at the MK2 Beaubourg on May 12. Thankfully, we had pre-purchased our tickets. When we arrived, attendants at the theater announced that the screening was sold out.

Sign designating entry lines at MK2 Beaubourg
© Discover Paris!

Sign above screening room
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Packed house
© Discover Paris!
At the end of the screening, director Raoul Peck and sociologist / philosopher Didier Eribon commented on the film prior to taking questions from the audience.

Raoul Peck and Didier Eribon
© Discover Paris!

Conference moderator
© Discover Paris!
The discussion, which was conducted entirely in French, lasted roughly an hour.

At the time of this writing, Allociné reports that the documentary has a rating of 4.3 / 5 stars by the press (based on 17 reviews) and 4.1 / 5 stars by the public (based on 131 votes).

Four additional original language screenings of I Am Not Your Negro are scheduled to include audience interactions with Peck or others:

Paris - May 18 at 8 PM: l'Arlequin - with L'Histoire Magazine and historian Pap N'Diaye

Paris - May 19 at 8 PM: l'Arlequin - with Taschen Books and the Collectif James Baldwin

Saint-Ouen - May 29 at 8:30 PM: Espace 1789 - with author Olivier Mahéo

Saint-Denis - June 2 at 8:30 PM: l'Ecran - with director Raoul Peck

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Melvin Van Peebles at the Black Riot Cycle

Five years ago, Melvin Van Peebles created a musical version of his iconic, independent, 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. He called it an opera.

He wrote, composed, and directed it, and he selected Greg Tate and the Burnt Sugar Arkestra to perform the music. Called Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song – A Hood Opera, it premiered at the Sons d'Hiver Festival at the Maison des Arts de Creteil in the Paris suburb of Creteil in 2010.

Two years later, Sweet Sweetback returned to the Sons d'Hiver Festival in Creteil, this time in documentary form. Called L'opéra rêvé de Melvin Van Peebles, producer Samuel Thiebaut’s film features a behind-the-scenes look at the staging of the opera.

On September 10, 2015, the documentary was screened once again – this time at the MK2 Quai de Seine cinema in Paris. It was showcased as part of the Black Riot cycle of the Jazz à La Villette festival – the screening of several “essential” full-length films such as Black Panthers (1968) by Agnès Varda and Free Angela (2013) by Shola Lynch. The festival’s organizers selected this theme to “echo” the demonstrations that have erupted in the U.S. in reaction to police violence.

MK2 Quai de Seine cinema
© Discover Paris!

Black Riot Cycle at Jazz à la Villette 2015
© Discover Paris!
To open the evening, Van Peebles took the stage to be interviewed and answer questions from the audience.

Melvin Van Peebles being interviewed
© Discover Paris!
Among the topics discussed was the inextricable link between his film career and his experiences in France. During the 1960s, he pub­lished four nov­els and a collection of short stories in French. La Permission, a novel published in 1967, became the basis of his first fea­ture, a black and white French film given the same name. Called The Story of A Three Day Pass in English, this film won the Critic’s Choice Award at the 1967 San Fran­cisco Film Fes­ti­val. In 2001, Van Peebles was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

Click on the image below to view a teaser for the documentary by Samuel Thiebaut.

Cool, no problem.
Screenshot from L'opéra rêvé de Melvin Van Peebles
After the screening, Van Peebles graciously posed with members of the audience.

Monique and Melvin Van Peebles
© Discover Paris!
He was definitely MVP for the evening...

Melvin Van Peebles with MVP on jacket
© Discover Paris!
Most Valuable Peebles!

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Black Girl in Paris Coming to the Big Screen

Shay Youngblood's novel Black Girl in Paris (2000, Riverhead Books) is coming to the big screen.

Image from ShayYoungblood.com

The book presents the story of Eden Daniel, a young woman who journeys to Paris as part of her voyage to find herself.  Here's a description from the Reading Guide on Youngblood's Web site:

Black Girl in Paris wends its way around the mythology of Paris as a city that called out to African-American artists. Like James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Josephine Baker before her, Youngblood’s heroine leaves the American South nurturing a dream of finding artistic emancipation in the City of Light. She experiments freely, inhabiting different incarnations—artist’s model, poet’s helper, au pair, teacher, thief, and lover—to keep body and soul together, to stay afloat, heal the wounds of her broken heart, discover her sexual self, and, finally,to wrestle her dreams of becoming a writer into reality.

Twelve years later, the tale is being filmed in the streets of Paris.  Tracey Heggins of Medicine for Melancholy plays the role of Eden.  To view still shots of various movie sets, click here.  

The projected release date for the film is 2013.

Shay Youngblood is a novelist, short-story writer, playwright, artist, and professor.

Shay Youngblood and Patricia Laplante-Collins

Photo courtesy of Patricia Laplante-Collins, Paris Soirées

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