Political Films MLK Day Meet-Up: I Am Not Your Negro

Political Films Meet-Up: I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Let’s talk about movies! Join movie club member Clay Vaughn for the next film in our Political Films series with Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro (2016), an essay-style documentary based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember This House. The film explores the history of racism in the United States, focusing on several prominent civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., whose federal holiday is one day after our meet-up.

Here’s how The Portland Movie Club meet-ups work:

• Just like a book club, we watch the movie on our own time before we meet.
• We'll meet at Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne at 4pm on the scheduled date.
• We'll typically have a sign at our table(s) but at least we'll try to be obvious and identifiable.
• Grab some food and drinks to support our generous hosts and spend some time socializing and discussing this movie with us.

A Few Notes about the film:
Raoul Peck is a Haitian director known for politically focused films, both documentary and nonfiction. I Am Not Your Negro received critical acclaim, was nominated for the best documentary Oscar, and won at the BAFTAs and César Awards. Peck later received a Peabody Award for his HBO documentary miniseries Exterminate All the Brutes (2021).

Viewing Options for the film:
For streaming, the film is available for free on Tubi, Xumo, Pluto, and Roku. It is also available on Kanopy, which can be accessed by anyone with a Multnomah County Library card. And, as always, physical copies of the film are available to rent at Movie Madness.

About Political Films:
This series is based on the New Republic article, "The 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time" ([https://newrepublic.com/article/173376/100-political-films-new-republic-list] published in June 2023 and is a comprehensive list of films that speak to our relationships with government, war, bureaucracy, politics and politicians, crime, propaganda, classism, and more. The list is not intended to be a collection of the 'best' films, but the most significant (although many of them are also very good). Some of these films can be a challenging watch, we suggest www.doesthedogdie.com for content warnings.

Tips:
Once again, we do not watch the movie at the meet-up. All members watch the movie on their own time before we meet to discuss it. You don't have to watch the movie to join us, but it'll make more sense if you do. Feel free to bring along any notes, books, or articles you'd like to share with the group.

At the end of the discussion we'll pass around a ballot where we can vote on a slate of options for the next discussion. Lately we've been alternating documentaries and fiction films. So if you come to a meet-up to discuss a documentary, you'll vote on a ballot of fiction films for next time, and vice versa.

Previous films viewed by the Political Films group have included: It's a Wonderful Life, Reds, Soundtrack to a Coup D'État, The Conformist, The Fog of War, The Zone of Interest, Harlan County USA, Judas And The Black Messiah, Medium Cool, The President’s Analyst, Marat/Sade, On The Waterfront, The Great McGinty, Seven Days In May, The Candidate, The Act of Killing, The Battle Of Algiers, All The President’s Men, How To Blow Up A Pipeline, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, A Face In The Crowd, and Dr. Strangelove.

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