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Midway through the new documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything, actor and singer Billy Porter says something that distills one of the film\u2019s major themes: \u201cIn the face of insurmountable challenges, sometimes simply existing is a revolutionary act.\u201d The film, directed by the multi-hyphenate filmmaker Lisa Cort\xe9s, tells the story of one of the great American artists, a global celebrity whose simple existence as a Queer Black man was a direct challenge to the status quo. A studied deep dive into the archive, filled with incendiary performances and biographical detail, I Am Everything is also a challenge to pop music history, and an effort to finally afford Little Richard his place as both the progenitor of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll and a groundbreaking cultural force unto himself.\n\nFilm Comment\u2019s Clinton Krute spoke with Cort\xe9s about the contradictory nature of a man who swung between libertine impulses and religious conviction his entire life, how she reads his work and life as a utopian and cosmic project, and her own remarkable and varied career in the entertainment industry.