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Tear This Building Down: James Baldwin on film
In 1976, James Baldwin published a book-length essay, The Devil Finds Work, in which he explored his relationship to film. It’s the perfect starting point for this season.
‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’
– James Baldwin
Baldwin’s powerful and original essay has much to say about the role of African Americans in twentieth-century American life, while also revealing the writer’s passion for cinema. Early in his career, Baldwin wrote an important essay on Ingmar Bergman, he was friends with Marlon Brando and Elia Kazan, and in the sixties he was contracted to write the screenplay of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
This season will showcase Baldwin’s many interests in the medium. There are films about him, films that feature work by close friends such as Lorraine Hansberry and Sidney Poitier, and two adaptations of his own novels. As a body of work, they suggest Baldwin’s lifelong engagement with the world of the ‘movies’.
Caryl Phillips, author and season advisor
This programme which showcases James Baldwin’s many interests in film exposes instances of racialised language and behaviour that may be upsetting to some viewers.
I Am Not Your Negro
A fascinating compilation of spoken words and unpublished writings of James Baldwin, as he reflects on the struggles of the civil rights movement.
A Raisin in the Sun
Considered a milestone for its nuance of character and its foresight, this drama chronicles Black working-class life in Chicago.
Go Tell It on the Mountain
An adaptation of Baldwin’s most personal novel, observing a day in the life of a gifted teenager.
Go Tell It on the Mountain + intro
An adaptation of Baldwin’s most personal novel, observing a day in the life of a gifted teenager.
If Beale Street Could Talk
This faithful adaptation of Baldwin’s novel is a rapturous and lyrical love story, and the portrayal of an everyday struggle for justice.
James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket
A personal and profound account of Baldwin from friends and associates.
Color Adjustment
An astonishing analysis from the early 1990s of Black representation on mainstream US TV.
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
A restored masterwork from Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley that captures Baldwin in his later years, as he travels across the USA and reflects on affecting moments from the civil rights protests.
Want more?
See the screening of ’Round Midnight followed by a discussion between Caryl Phillips and Gary Younge.