Having made official selection lists at the Chicago International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and AFI Fest as well as double nominations from the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, the Black American history doc Stamped from the Beginning will make its Netflix streaming debut on November 20. The feature-length film incorporates animated segments in a variety of styles to illustrate as experts explore the history of anti-Black racist ideas.
Stamped from the Beginning will also receive a theatrical release in select U.S. cinemas from November 10.
Synopsis: Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams brings Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s New York Times bestseller to the screen with Stamped from the Beginning. Published in 2016, Dr. Kendi’s National Book Award winner chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
Williams’ documentary adaptation uses an innovative animation process that blends live action with the art of the era to illuminate figures and moments both well-known and obscure, both historical and contemporary. Leading female academics and activists such as Dr. Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan and Dr. Kendi guide viewers through a searing account of how racist tropes and imagery were developed and enshrined in American culture.
The documentary feature is directed and produced by Williams (Cassandra, Music by Prudence, Love to Love You, Donna Summer); Dr. Kendi and NAACP Image Award winner Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends, The Game, Being Mary Jane) are executive producers.
The animation was created by Los Angeles-based Awesome + Modest. The film features original artwork by Yolanda Glass and Isaiah Glass, Brian McKissick and Chris Bivins. Williams reached out to the studio after seeing their work in another documentary, The Stroll, at a Sundance Film Festival screening.
“I really loved the way that animation was layered with a subject, a real person. They created this world around them, and it was just brilliant,” the director has previously explained. “… I can’t begin to tell you how creative and how brilliant [Awesome + Modest] are as animators. What they did was extraordinary. I’m someone who likes working with different media, and I loved their approach to this animation being mixed media.
