--- title: I Am Not Your Negro (2016): 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades description: Find out why I Am Not Your Negro (2016) was selected for the list canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6296118/i-am-not-your-negro-2016/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-07-26T11:32:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:17:29.104Z og:title: 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades: I Am Not Your Negro (2016) og:description: Find out why I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is on the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6296118/i-am-not-your-negro-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7696ae4f60d3fa92/698a3ef786f68e74b36f2a37/top-100-movies-2010s-iamnotyournegro.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades: I Am Not Your Negro (2016) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades: I Am Not Your Negro (2016) twitter:description: Find out why I Am Not Your Negro (2016) is on the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7696ae4f60d3fa92/698a3ef786f68e74b36f2a37/top-100-movies-2010s-iamnotyournegro.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jul 26, 2023 # _I Am Not Your Negro_ (2016) by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  The March on Washington, seen in I Am Not Your Negro. The March on Washington, seen in I Am Not Your Negro.Dan Budnik—Magnolia Pictures The best documentaries aren’t instructive vehicles stuffed with facts; they’re vast wells of ideas that continue to take shape even after you’ve finished watching. That’s the kind of documentary Raoul Peck gives us with [_I Am Not Your Negro_](https://time.com/4657880/review-i-am-not-your-negro-shows-how-far-we-only-think-weve-come/ "undefined"), a reconstruction of a book that never came to fruition: Before he died, in 1987, [James Baldwin](https://time.com/4680673/james-baldwin-documentary-history/ "undefined") had embarked on an ambitious work that was to be titled _Remember This House_, an account of the lives and legacies of three of his closest friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X**,** and Martin Luther King, Jr.. Baldwin had completed only 30 pages by the time of his death, but Peck obtained the notes for the manuscript from Baldwin’s estate, and he uses them here—combined with clips from Baldwin’s public appearances—to assemble a mosaic of the work that might have been. (Baldwin’s text is read by Samuel L. Jackson, who captures the supple eloquence of his language.) The result is an extraordinary and multifaceted reflection on Black racial identity in America, and a work dedicated to keeping Baldwin’s ideas alive in the world. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6296118/i-am-not-your-negro-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6296118/i-am-not-your-negro-2016/"},"headline":"I Am Not Your Negro (2016)","datePublished":"2023-07-26T11:32:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:17:29.104Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6296118/i-am-not-your-negro-2016/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7696ae4f60d3fa92/698a3ef786f68e74b36f2a37/top-100-movies-2010s-iamnotyournegro.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7696ae4f60d3fa92/698a3ef786f68e74b36f2a37/top-100-movies-2010s-iamnotyournegro.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-best-movies/6296118/i-am-not-your-negro-2016/","name":"I Am Not Your Negro (2016)"}}]}] ```