Many documentary filmmakers populate their hagiographies about musicians with incessantly fawning talking heads. Minimal insight, maximum hyperbole. The new documentary about Little Richard contains hyperbole, too, starting with its title, Little Richard: I Am Everything. Richard, a rock and roll pioneer who famously protested his lack of recognition, spoke of himself as a cultural quasar. “I’m the originator, I’m the emancipator, the architect of rock and roll,” he claimed. 

But Richard’s boasts and protests were righteous. His world-shaking impact and career-sapping bedevilments appear in I Am Everything, the documentary that’s screening Tuesday, April 11, in 500 theaters across the nation. I Am Everything goes to additional theaters and streaming services on April 21. Tickets are available on the documentary’s website.

Richard’s incendiary hits in the 1950s and electrifying stage presence qualified him as a king, if not the king, of rock and roll. The kingdom of rock and roll had multiple kings, including New Orleans’ Fats Domino. Elvis Presley, the white singer ubiquitously dubbed the king of rock and roll, rejected the crown, pointing instead to Domino and Richard as the true monarchs. 

Director Lisa Cortés instills Little Richard: I Am Everything with the same wild spirit with which Richard animated his rock and roll classics. That excitement plus Richard’s complexity and contradictions translate to never a dull moment during the 98-minute film.   

Fortunately for Cortés, a bounty of archival film of Richard exists. In the documentary, he strides forth in sparkling glory during concert and TV appearances. And because so much film and audio of Richard is available, he tells his own story, doing so with miles more verve than anyone else can. 

Inevitably, the documentaryalso sees Richard through a modern lens. Despite the early 21st century’s predilection for revisionism, his impact on 20th century culture and periodic struggles with the homosexuality his religion condemned are worthy of some new perspectives. 

The documentary’s contemporary interviewees include black and LGBT scholars; actor and singer Billy Porter; a few family members; filmmaker and fan John Waters; and musicians Nona Hendryx, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones and Nile Rodgers. But as often happens when documentarians recruit modern stars to expound upon classic artists, not everyone’s comments are worth more than whatever attention their name in the credits may bring. Fortunately, Richard stays omnipresent, leaving these present-day commentators with thankfully brief cameos. 

Cortés’ film includes Richard’s career-making first recording sessions in New Orleans. Conducted in September 1955 at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Recording Studio on North Rampart Street, the sessions delivered his breakthrough hit, “Tutti Frutti.” Archival film in the documentary features Bumps Blackwell, the sessions’ producer, as well as Dorothy LaBostrie, the New Orleans songwriter who cleaned up the singer’s bawdy “Tutti Frutti” lyrics, and key studio musicians Earl Palmer and Alvin “Red” Tyler. 

Despite bits of superfluous visual flash that won’t age nearly as well as Richard’s music, Cortés communicates Richard’s magnetism, extravagance and career-sabotaging flaws to captivating effect. Commanding attention from start to finish, I Am Everything does the fabulous Little Richard justice.

A special screening of the film will be shown on April 11, 2023 at the Prytania Theater and the AMC Theaters in Elmwood and in Covington.