Stamped from the Beginning

Adapting Ibram X. Kendi’s National Book Award-winning history of the same name, Roger Ross Williams tackles the history of racist imagery, policies, stories, and institutions that deform American society. The film also dismantles several myths that deny Black people their own agency and legacy in artistic and political realms. From the origins of slavery to Black Lives Matter, Williams uses a comprehensive range of archival footage, animation, and reenactments alongside piercing interviews with academics, politicians, and Kendi himself to expose how racism demeans and disfigures everyone. Portraits of Harriet Jacobs, who writes the first slave narrative by a woman, and Ida B. Wells, who conducts invaluable research on lynching while it’s happening around her, are just two of the compelling stories portrayed. The film also points the way forward, proposing the active disposition required to develop an anti-racist mentality that could be key in healing our communities.