Little Richard: I Am Everything– A stunning documentary about an overlooked legend
Throughout history, those who created great movements are rarely the ones who enjoyed the benefits. Little Richard: I Am Everything is a stunning documentary about a singer, but also a meditation about how cultural history is manicured.
Told through archive footage and talking head interviews, it’s about the life of Richard Wayne Penniman, the singer from Maycomb, Georgia who would find success in the 1950s as Little Richard. Overcoming racial segregation to break through to America’s white youth, the film is a testament to how hits such as Long Tall Sally and Tutti Frutti inspired The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and more (with interview footage of those figures confirming it).
He was, as he proclaimed several times in his life, The Architect of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Yet director Lisa Cortes pulls the curtain back on the many ways in which his genius was undermined: culturally, with record companies declaring Elvis Presley and other white acts as the originators of the genre, and financially as it’s revealed Richard wasn’t paid royalties for his many classics. Academics, musicians, and admirers (John Waters, Mick Jagger, and Billy Porter to name a few) lament the treatment of a man who gave them so much, but always seemed to be shouting from the fringes of celebrity.
Even more interesting is the examination of the man. Richard’s Christianity was at direct odds with him being gay, to the point where he renounced his sexuality many times and married women. While seen as a betrayal of the community by some, other (more sympathetic) interviewees offer a portrait of a man who feared damnation, who had been told for so long that he was bound for hell that he began to believe it. Paired with the singer’s own sparkling anecdotes and stunning performances, Little Richard: I Am Everything is a sublime tribute to a man who was never anything less than unique.