Little Richard: I Am Everything

Documentary examines flamboyant King (and Queen) of rock ’n’ roll.

Sundance 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 – and, no, it wasn’t Elvis, no matter what you’ve been told; it was Richard Penniman, known worldwide as “Little Richard,” who shocked the world with “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” “Lucille” and “Tutti Frutti.”

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. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he really was unabashedly everything. Sexually charged and wild, Little Richard, however, renounced his queerness. “He was very, very good at liberating other people. He was not good, however, at liberating himself,” recounts one scholar. Enthralling, exciting, animalistic, and radical. He had all the complexities of a Black artist who was unapologetically queer and flamboyant one minute, only to renounce his sexuality and hedonism as a man of God the next.

Nearly eclipsed by Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other rockers of the day, Little Richard created the original rock ’n’ roll icon. “I was unpredictable, they didn’t know what do with me,” he once said. “When you got, goddamit, show it to the world!” And, boy, did he ever.

“Tutti frutti, oh rootie, a wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom!”

The 98 minute documentary features commentary from entertainers including John Waters, Sir Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Mick Jagger, Billy Porter, and others.

Directed by Lisa Cortés, Little Richard: I Am Everything is available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft, Redbox, DirectTV, Dish, Verizon Fios, Suddenlink, AT&T Cox, and other streaming platforms.

Find out more at LittleRichardDocumentary.com