Stamped from the Beginning

Synopsis

Inspired by the book of the same name and narrated by its bestselling author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (How to Be An Antiracist), Stamped from the Beginning explores the roots of anti-Black racist beliefs and practices and how they’ve become enshrined in American culture. The film brings history to life through vivid animated sequences recounting the often little-known achievements of Black women thinkers such as 18th C. poet Phillis Wheatley, memoirist Harriet Jacobs, and journalist Ida B. Wells, while also exposing the whitewashed legacies of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Directed by Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams (The Apollo) and featuring such leading activists as Dr. Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Brittany Packnett Cunningham, the film is a bold and searing account of how past and present are entwined in an insidious mix of white supremacist and anti-Black ideologies.