Our take
I Am Not Your Negro director Raoul Peck examines the history of colonisation in this four-part miniseries, interweaving his own personal story growing up between Haiti, Congo, and Brooklyn, New York with staged events from previous centuries starring the likes of Josh Hartnett, and film footage from important moments in history.
The topics of colonisation and genocide, while ever-present in today’s discourse, are looked at as either topics of the past (history of colonisation), or topics of the present (current genocide in Palestine). Peck’s effort bridges both, often connecting the dots between events that seem un-connected: for example, how colonisation started with the crusades, and how the genocide of Native Americans paved the way for the Holocaust.
Narrated by the director himself, this is important work that feels less like sitting through a lecture, which is the trap most of these usually fall into, and more as listening to a personal story that a character had to go back in time to be able to thoroughly explain.
What it won
DGA
1 nom
Who picked it
Bilal Zouheir is the founder of A Good Movie to Watch. He is based in the US and a member of the Nevada Film Critics Society. He grew up in Morocco, where he learned English from watching movies. Bilal's work with A Good Movie to Watch is focused on offering an alternative to streaming algorithms, which are often used as commercial tools by streaming services.
