The man who was everything, and then some

IN A NATION TORN APART BY, OF ALL THINGS, the perception that drag performers will corrupt our children, the time is right for a documentary about the glitter king himself, Little Richard, a performer who broke all kinds of boundaries at a time when doing so could be life-threatening. 

- STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

Lisa Cortés' Little Richard: I Am Everythingwhich premiered at Sundance and will make its television premiere on CNN on Sept. 4-tells the life story of the man who was born Richard Wayne Penniman in 1932 Macon, Ga., the son of a minister and nightclub owner who disapproved of his son's flamboyance. But Cortés, using clips from Penniman's performances and appearances on TV talk shows, gives us something much more than your standard biographical documentary. She uses Penniman's story to map America's conflicted feelings about its own racial, religious, and sexual identity, and to celebrate the freedom he bestowed upon us-freedom that he wanted us to have, even if he sometimes didn't allow himself to enjoy it.