film

Here are two Black queer icons, both standing at the precipice of life’s intersections... They may spar with their intellect might, but they also take boundless care of each other. The resulting dance is breathtaking.

Nikki Giovanni is so cool... Just being in her presence is more than enough.

The documentary offers only what the poet is willing to give. And Giovanni is a challenging subject: She has firm boundaries, and there are questions she refuses to answer.

The Nikki Giovanni Project breaks the traditional documentary format and presents a raw, sensitive, and lyrical portrait of its subject.

Everything the directors do supports and surrounds Giovanni with the tools she needs to tell her life story. A portrait painted in words that are as evocative as those in any Toni Morrison or Bernice McFadden novel.

What makes this portrait of Nikki Giovanni so special is it makes her contradictions, her elusiveness, her boundaries, part of the film itself.

An enjoyably impressionistic bio-doc.

The bold resistance that makes Giovanni an engaging subject, ironically renders her cinematically enigmatic too.

Directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson have crafted an eloquent and engaging portrait...

Nikki comes across as someone who does not compromise when it comes to her principles. This gets her in trouble with both conservatives and liberals. Nikki is a woman who speaks her mind, and she doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks of her.