March 16th 2023.
A new documentary exploring the life and unique music accomplishments of the late Little Richard is set to come out next month. Entitled Little Richard: I Am Everything, the film from Lisa Cortés offers an intimate look at the rock n' roll icon's pioneering function in the American pop music industry, regardless of the racism and segregation at the time.
It was first shown at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and will be available in theaters for one night only on April 11 and digitally on April 21, as per Deadline.
The documentary also mentions the significance of Little Richard in the development of Black queer roots in rock n' roll. At the end of the 1998 film, Why Do Fools Fall In Love, Little Richard demanded to be credited as one of the Kings of R&B. While many music legends, such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, never had to fight for their music's recognition, Little Richard was often overlooked, despite being a source of inspiration for them.
His hits such as "Tutti Frutti", "Lucille" and "Long Tall Sally" are seen as a blueprint for numerous rock and rollers. The documentary features archive and performance footage, along with interviews with family members, musicians and Black and queer scholars highlighting Richard's life and music career and the contrasts that accompanied it.
Although Little Richard was a pioneer of self-expression, he had difficulties living in his own truth in private. Cortes noted, "[What] our film shows, though, is that Richard oftentimes had to proclaim that in what he felt was a void that didn’t recognize his contributions. And what I love is that in the mid-1950s he was saying he was a king. He was claiming a space for him that was denied for most Black people. It’s a time of Emmett Till’s murder. And Little Richard shows up at the same time declaring himself in a world that can be oftentimes dangerous for non-normative people.”
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