AMERICAN MASTERS: James Baldwin

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published November 1, 2022 at 5:06 PM PDT

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. Author James Baldwin with actors Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston. Aug. 28,1963.

Encore Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 / On demand now with KPBS Passport!

This film is an in-depth portrait of James Baldwin, one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century. Using archival material that reflects Baldwin's worldwide influence and appeal, the film includes interviews with family members, friends and notable colleagues, including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, William Styron, Amiri Baraka, Richard Avedon, and Bobby Short, among others.

Using rarely-seen archival footage from nine different countries, the film melds intimate interviews and eloquent public speeches with cinéma vérité glimpses of Baldwin and original scenes from his extraordinary funeral service in December 1987.

Segments were filmed in France, Turkey, and Harlem, all places where Baldwin lived. Through Baldwin's work as a writer (ever since his first book in 1953, "Go Tell It On The Mountain"), he has helped mobilize the civil rights movement, brought new awareness and compassion to both black and white readers, and shed light on what it is like to be black in America.

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Features highlights of Baldwin's deep involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, including "The Fire Next Time," the March on Washington, the March from Selma to Montgomery and the Baldwin/Buckley Debate at Cambridge University -- all excerpted from the film, "James Baldwin: The Price Of The Ticket."

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Words -- both written and spoken -- were James Baldwin's greatest gift to America and to people of all races all over the world. He knew how to electrify readers, his insights about what it meant to be black in America were both intimate and accessible. He preached brotherhood, not violence, with searing honesty; his truth was laced with pain and anger. But he never lost hope.

AMERICAN MASTERS: James Baldwin

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