Little Richard: I Am Everything

BXXBCN LITTLE RICHARD at Wrigley Fields, Los Angeles, 2 September 1956

BXXBFH LITTLE RICHARD at Wrigley Fields, Los Angeles, 2 September 1956

BXXBCB LITTLE RICHARD at Wrigley Fields, Los Angeles, 2 September 1956

T67T42 1974, london, september 14th, wembley stadium london, Great Britain - 1974, (Photo Gijsbert Hanekroot)

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Advance Screening
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Directed by Lisa Cortes

Tuesday, April 11, 6 pm

$12 | $8 Speed members

“Brilliantly connects the past, present and future.”—Sabina Dana Plasse, Film Threat

Director Lisa Cortés’ documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – “Little” Richard Penniman. 

Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. 

Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex, and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.

Opening night selection of the Sundance Film Festival. 2023, U.S., DCP, 98 minutes. Recommended for 16+.