CNN Films and HBO Max’s latest documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything demands audiences to give respect to one of the architects of rock n’ roll music.
Lisa Cortés directs a gripping documentary about Little Richard, born Richard Penniman, and how he transformed music forever with his explosive style of music and showmanship. The film features interviews with Mick Jagger, Billy Porter, John Waters, Tom Jones, and others about how Little Richard influenced their careers and the mark he left on the world.
According to the official description:
Produced by Bungalow Media + Entertainment for CNN Films and HBO Max, in association with Rolling Stone Films, director Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.
Shadow and Act’s Aramide A. Tinubu reviewed Little Richard: I Am Everything during its Sundance premiere, writing that the film “shines a spotlight on the mesmerizing musician whose complex legacy is infused in the DNA of American popular music.”
“The music and the performances in I Am Everything are so full of beauty and eroticism that they are something to behold on their own. Yet, Cortés is careful to anchor the audience with history,” she wrote, adding that the documentary illuminated Little Richard’s struggles with his queerness because of his religious upbringing, as well as his career being constantly looked over in favor of white artists doing similar–or in many cases, the same–type of musical presentation.
“I Am Everything dives into the rampant appropriation that Little Richard endured. As one scholar in the film called it, it was near obliteration. Though the accolades that went to his imitators like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones tormented Little Richard, the beauty of his legacy is that he never stopped advocating to be seen for exactly who he was and all of the brilliance that he contributed,” Tinubu wrote.
Little Richard: I Am Everything will release to theaters in a one-night-only screening April 11 via Magnolia Pictures. Additional theatrical releases and a digital release is set for April 21.
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