Summary

This introduction sheds light on director Raoul Peck's process of compiling images, official documents, and excerpts of Baldwin's unfinished proposal to his agent, for a manuscript to be titled, Remember This House. Long influenced by Baldwin, Peck claims to have started his research with an abstract goal of creating a fitting tribute to the life and work of this great man. He talks of creating a counter-narrative to oppose the version of historical events often taught in schools or popularized through the filter of the media.

Peck describes his moment of epiphany when Gloria, Baldwin's younger sister, handed him the notes to the unfinished manuscript of Remember This House: "And indeed, I knew immediately. A book that was never written! That's the story. And what characters! Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr... My job was to...