Directed by Pat Hartley and Dick Fontaine • 1982 • United States
Fifteen years after the end of Jim Crow, writer, activist, and cultural critic James Baldwin returns to the American South for a thought-provoking journey that brings the region’s past and present into revealing dialogue. As he revisits the major sites of the civil rights struggle—from Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia—Baldwin explores both what has changed in the intervening years and what, tellingly, has not. Featuring illuminating conversations with prominent activists and cultural figures like Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, Oretha Castle Haley, and Chinua Achebe as well as everyday people, I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE offers an essential perspective on the changing face of the South, the legacy of the civil rights movement, and all that remains to be done.
Up Next in James Baldwin On-Screen
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James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket
Directed by Karen Thorsen • 1989 • United States
Starring James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Amiri BarakaAn emotional portrait, a social critique, and a passionate plea for human equality, JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET eschews narration to allow the monumentally influential writer and activi...
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Baldwin’s Nigger
Directed by Horace Ové • 1968 • United Kingdom
Starring James Baldwin, Dick GregoryIn this riveting short documentary by pioneering Trinidadian-British filmmaker Horace Ové, James Baldwin and comedian-activist Dick Gregory speak to a group of radical West Indian students in London about everyth...
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Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris
Directed by Terence Dixon • 1970 • France, United Kingdom
Starring James Baldwin, Terence DixonIn 1970, a British film crew set out to make a straightforward literary portrait of James Baldwin set in Paris, insisting on setting aside his political activism. Baldwin bristled at their questions, ...
