“Someone’s got to tell it like it is. And that’s where it’s at.”
—James Baldwin
James Baldwin spent his lifetime “telling it like it is” in prose and poems, lectures and plays, demonstrations and debates, delivering a lucid analysis of the historical, political, and psychological underpinnings of racism and the structural inequality of the United States and other Western nations. Inspired by Baldwin’s dazzling work of film criticism, The Devil Finds Work, this series explores Baldwin’s encounter with cinema and his contributions to American intellectual life, alongside works by black filmmakers that also critically reflect on the history of race relations in the US and the UK. The series begins with I Am Not Your Negro, based on Baldwin’s unfinished memoir, Remember This House. It continues with two of the films at the center of Baldwin’s critical account of race and Hollywood cinema, The Defiant Ones and In This Our Life. The program also includes documentaries about Baldwin’s life and his journey to San Francisco in 1963, along with essay films by John Akomfrah and Marlon Riggs that explore questions of race, immigration, and sexuality—films that, in their formal experimentations, demonstrate the cinema’s enduring power as a tool of critical reflection and resistance.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Damon Young, Assistant Professor of French and Film & Media, UC Berkeley
show less
—James Baldwin
James Baldwin spent his lifetime “telling it like it is” in prose and poems, lectures and plays, demonstrations and debates, delivering a lucid analysis of the historical, political, and psychological underpinnings of racism and the structural inequality of the United States and other Western nations. Inspired by Baldwin’s dazzling work of film criticism, The Devil Finds Work, this series explores Baldwin’s encounter with cinema and his contributions to American intellectual life, alongside works by black filmmakers that also critically reflect on the history of race relations in the US and the UK. The series begins with I Am Not Your Negro, based on Baldwin’s unfinished memoir, Remember This House. It continues with two of the films at the center of Baldwin’s critical account of race and Hollywood cinema, The Defiant Ones and In This Our Life. The program also includes documentaries about Baldwin’s life and his journey to San Francisco in 1963, along with essay films by John Akomfrah and Marlon Riggs that explore questions of race, immigration, and sexuality—films that, in their formal experimentations, demonstrate the cinema’s enduring power as a tool of critical reflection and resistance.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Damon Young, Assistant Professor of French and Film & Media, UC Berkeley
“Someone’s got to tell it like it is. And that’s where it’s at.”
—James Baldwin
James Baldwin spent his lifetime “telling it like it is” in prose and poems, lectures and plays, demonstrations and debates, delivering a lucid analysis of the historical, political, and psychological underpinnings of racism and the structural inequality of the United States and other Western nations. Inspired by Baldwin’s dazzling work of film criticism, The Devil Finds Work, this series explores Baldwin’s encounter with cinema and his contributions to American intellectual life, alongside works by black filmmakers that also critically reflect on the history of race relations in the US and the UK. The series begins with I Am Not Your Negro, based on Baldwin’s unfinished memoir, Remember This House. It continues with two of the films at the center of Baldwin’s critical account of race and Hollywood cinema, The Defiant Ones and In This Our Life. The program also includes documentaries about Baldwin’s life and his journey to San Francisco in 1963, along with essay films by John Akomfrah and Marlon Riggs that explore questions of race, immigration, and sexuality—films that, in their formal experimentations, demonstrate the cinema’s enduring power as a tool of critical reflection and resistance.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Damon Young, Assistant Professor of French and Film & Media, UC Berkeley
read more
—James Baldwin
James Baldwin spent his lifetime “telling it like it is” in prose and poems, lectures and plays, demonstrations and debates, delivering a lucid analysis of the historical, political, and psychological underpinnings of racism and the structural inequality of the United States and other Western nations. Inspired by Baldwin’s dazzling work of film criticism, The Devil Finds Work, this series explores Baldwin’s encounter with cinema and his contributions to American intellectual life, alongside works by black filmmakers that also critically reflect on the history of race relations in the US and the UK. The series begins with I Am Not Your Negro, based on Baldwin’s unfinished memoir, Remember This House. It continues with two of the films at the center of Baldwin’s critical account of race and Hollywood cinema, The Defiant Ones and In This Our Life. The program also includes documentaries about Baldwin’s life and his journey to San Francisco in 1963, along with essay films by John Akomfrah and Marlon Riggs that explore questions of race, immigration, and sexuality—films that, in their formal experimentations, demonstrate the cinema’s enduring power as a tool of critical reflection and resistance.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Damon Young, Assistant Professor of French and Film & Media, UC Berkeley
show less
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Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)
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