Stamped From The Beginning Is Netflix’s Most Hard-Hitting Documentary This Year
Netflix has made a few must-watch documentaries this year, like MH370: The Plane That Disappeared and Take Care of Maya but their latest, Stamped From The Beginning, might be their most hard-hitting yet.
Based on the best-selling book by Ibram X. Kendi, it takes an unflinching look at the history of racism against Black people in America, often through ideas and stereotypes pervasive in society. Blending both a traditional documentary style and amazing animation, the docufilm promises to be one of 2023’s most thought-provoking, to say the least.
What is Stamped From The Beginning about?
Adapting Ibram X. Kendi’s 2016 book Stamped from Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, the documentary aims to explain and analyse prejudice and bigotry across the centuries in the country, with a particularly strong focus on the effects of slavery.
Across the 90-minute film, various figures, including the author himself and activists like Angela Davis, discuss everything from the transatlantic slave trade to police brutality in the history of Black Americans, it’s certainly an informative and engrossing watch, and unsurprisingly painful to watch sometimes.
What else do we know?
Stamped from the Beginning’s principal point is that over decades and decades, systemic racism became engrained in much of American (and other Western countries) society, and looks at why Black people in America were particularly singled out.
The first line of the film’s official trailer is Kendi saying, “When we think of the history of racism in this country, we’re really thinking of the history of power,” with clips showing some of the film’s mesmerising animation, using different styles to emulate art in different periods.
As interviewees grapple with the subject matter, the docufilm also brings into focus the specific ways that Black men and women have been portrayed as “beastly” or people to be afraid of, which has had a pervasive impact into the present day, and creating lingering attitudes- in politics, policing and wider society. The other main point is that this history is often covered up or not reckoned with enough in modern-day America.
Even with the discussions of abhorrent racism, the documentary celebrates the indelible contribution Black Americans have made to the nation’s history: “I love all of the things Blackness has given America, whether or not America acknowledges it”, concludes one interviewee.
When will it be released?
Stamped from the Beginning is available to stream on Netflix now, and you can watch the trailer below.
