Little Richard : I Am Everything

  • Little Richard : I Am Everything
Genre : Social
Type : Documentary
Original title :
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 2022
Format : Feature
Running time : 98 (in minutes)

Like a quasar burning past the gaslight, director Lisa Cortés' eye-opening documentary explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music. Little Richard: I Am Everything shines a clarifying light on the Black, queer origins of rock'n' roll, and establishes the genre's big bang: Richard Wayne Penniman.

Testimonials from legendary musicians and cultural figures, Black and queer scholars, Penniman's family and friends, and interviews with the artist himself all exuberantly reclaim a history that was willfully appropriated by white artists and institutions. Cortés updates the canon with a treasure trove of rarely seen archival footage of Penniman. Among the gems are scenes with his Black and queer predecessors and contemporaries, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe: the mother of rock'n' roll who gave 14-year-old Penniman his first break.

Cortés depicts Penniman's complex journey as a conflicted revolutionary who careened between religion, sex, and rock'n' roll, navigating the extreme tensions of race and sexuality of his time. She reminds us that outsiders and outcasts can possess superpowers that, given the chance, can create new worlds for us all to dance in.



Director(s) : Lisa Cortés
Producer : Lisa Cortés, Robert Friedman, Liz Yale Marsh, Caryn Capotosto.
Executive Producers : Mike Powers, Amy Entelis, Courtney Sexton, Gus Wenner, Jason Fine, Dee Rees, Anita May Rosenstein
Directors of Photography : Keith Walker, Graham Willoughby
Editor : Nyneve Minnear, Jake Hostetter
Composer : Tamar-kali
Music Supervisor : Jonathan Finegold
Co-Producer : Jarobi Moorhead

Bungalow Media + Entertainment
Contact

friedman@bungalowentertainment.com

(917) 363-5555

Film by Lisa Cortés selected for the Sundance Film Festival 2022

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Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

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