In 1979, the writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin embarked on a project to tell the story of America through the lives of three of his murdered friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. He died before it could be completed and Raoul Peck imagines the book he never wrote.

An incisive dive into the mind of James Baldwin, who speaks of the disturbing history of American race relations. Raoul Peck’s award-winning film blends archive footage, interviews and excerpts from Baldwin’s unfinished novel—read by Samuel L. Jackson—for a portrait that sadly still resonates today.