Little Richard: I Am Everything

Little Richard: I Am Everything

25th TiDF: International Premiere
Like a quasar burning past the gaslight, director Lisa Cortés’s eye-opening documentary explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music. A film 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. Updating the canon with a treasure trove of rarely seen archival footage of Penniman, 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.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Lisa Cortés
Cinematography: Keith Walker, Graham Willoughby
Editing: Nyneve Minnear, Jake Hostetter
Music: Tamar-kali
Production: Bungalow Media + Entertainment for CNN Films, HBO Max
Producers: Robert Friedman, Caryn Capotosto, Lisa Cortés, Liz Yale Marsh
Co-production: Rolling Stone Films
Co-producers: Jarobi Moorhead
Executive producer: Dee Rees, Mike Powers, Anita May Rosentstein, Gus Wenner, Jason Fine, Amy Entelis, Courtney Sexton
Format: DCP
Color: Color, B/W
Production Country: USA
Production Year: 2023
Duration: 101'
Contact: Magnolia Pictures

Lisa Cortés

Filmography

2019 The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion 
2020 All In: The Fight For Democracy (co-direction)
2023 Little Richard: I Am Everything