MARCH INTERVIEW
I Am Somebody: An Interview With Madeline Anderson
The interview highlighted this month features Madeline Anderson, pioneering documentarian and director of Integration Report 1 and the critically acclaimed I Am Somebody. Both films brought the fight for civil rights onto the screen, centering those on the front lines of the movement. Her films place a spotlight on the work of Black political leaders and creatives, scoring footage with protest songs from the likes of Maya Angelou, and incorporating speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A graduate of NYU, Anderson is widely regarded as the first African American female born in the United States to direct a documentary film. Integration Report 1 has been accepted into The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and I Am Somebody was chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
In an interview with Metrograph, Madeline discusses both of these films, as well as her filmmaking process and inspirations.