Stamped from the Beginning
documentary
“This is about power and the few clinging to power and using it at the expense of Black Americans. This isn’t just a film for Black Americans. This is a film for all Americans,for the whole world. And hopefully, it brings people together and leads people on a path of antiracism and healing.“
Roger Ross Williams
“When we started looking at historians and scholars, we came up with a long list. I noticed the pattern that most of the people doing the work around racism in America were Black women. I asked them in pre-interviews ‘Why do you do this work?’And many of them said the same thing — that they had no choice. This was their experience and their life. And if they’re going to dedicate their life to something, it’s going to be about changing and understanding racism in America because they can’t escape racism in America. I said to everyone, ‘We’re going to have only Black women in this film.’ It was an important statement to make.“
Roger Ross Williams
Stamped from the Beginning
The history of anti-black ideas
Inspired by the book of the same name by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Roger Ross Williams’ Stamped From the Beginning explores the history of anti-Black ideas in a way that helps us grapple with present-day racism.
Williams takes inspiration from Kendi’s work to explore those themes with an array of powerful film techniques. Music and visual sampling are injected to create vivid storytelling with a hip-hop sensibility.
Stamped from the Beginning
A personal journey
“While ‘anti-racism’ became a term in America during George Floyd, what was so fascinating about Stamped From the Beginning is that I gained an understanding of the origins of racist ideas and how they morph, how they affect us and how they turn into policy and pop culture — all these things that infect our brains, our minds, and change the way we think about Black people,” says the filmmaker. “I myself had been a victim of that. I believed a lot of racist ideas about myself and my own people.”
— Roger Ross Williams – from the interview by Jen Yamato for the LA Times
Stamped from the Beginning
Credits
Director: ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS
Cast: Dr. Ibram X Kendi, Dr. Angela Davis, Dr. Autumn Womack, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Brittney Cooper, Dr. Carol Anderson, Dr. Dorothy Roberts, Dr. Elizabeth Hinton, Honorée Jeffers, Dr. Imani Perry, Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan, Dr. Kellie Carter-Jackson, Lynae Vanee, Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Dr. Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Producers: Alisa Payne, Roger Ross Williams, David Teague
Writer: David Teague
Cinematography: Wolfgang Held
Editing: John Fisher, Francesca Sharper
Executive Producers: Geoff Martz, Mara Brock Akil, Susie Fitzgerald, Dr. Ibram X Kendi
Original Score: Nate Wonder, Roman GianArthur
