From the Deep South to DC, civil rights pioneer James Baldwin – subject of I Am Not Your Negro (MIFF 2017) – revisits key sites in the US fight for racial equality.

An iconoclast, author, scathing intellectual and firebrand member of the civil rights movement, Baldwin has become a symbol of the US’s struggle to emerge from its racist history. In this substantial 1982 documentary – now richly restored by the Harvard Film Archive – he reminisces on that very journey as he tours the towns and cities that played pivotal, often violent, roles in shaping the America we know today.

Directed by Dick Fontaine, whose prolific career spans over four decades, I Heard It Through the Grapevine is assembled from Baldwin’s reflections, incredible archival footage, and then-contemporary interviews with his friends and comrades including Sterling Allen Brown, Oretha Castle Haley, Amiri Baraka and Chinua Achebe. As much a trip through the nation as down memory lane, this poignant film contemplates the painful reality of life for African Americans and remains as relevant today, in the shadow of the Black Lives Matter movement, as it ever was. With his trademark wit, Baldwin affirms that there is always a story from the past that can speak to the future.

“Gives lie to the comforting notion that suffering and sacrifice lead inevitably to justice and progress. It’s a harsh truth, precisely and artfully rendered.” – Filmmaker Magazine