"Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris" (1970), dokument, 26 min.

 


A documentary portrait of James Baldwin, one of the towering figures of 20th-century American literature, Black culture and political thought, filmed in Paris. The iconic writer is captured in several symbolic locations in the city, where he was living at the time, including the Place de la Bastille. A meeting with James Baldwin doesn't quite go according to plan for a group of presumptuous white filmmakers in this Paris-set documentary short. (text IMDB)

"Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris" (1970)
Director/Writer: Terence Dixon


   


 [James Baldwin]: "I am still, for Europe, a savage.

When a white man tears down a prison, he is trying to liberate himself.
When I tear down a prison, I'm assumed to be turning into another savage.

Because you don't understand... that you, for me, my prison.
You are my warden. I am battling you.
Not you, Terry. But you, the English, you, the French.

A whole way of life, a whole system of thought...
which has kept me in prison until this hour"

[...]

After shooting began, Baldwin's attitude started to change, and he became less cooperative. 
He did, however, agree to be filmed in the Algerian quarter, the Harlem of Paris.

[James Baldwin]: "I must say, the Algerians were very nice to me
because they understood the city and I did not.
I didn't know these streets. And they protected me in the streets.
And no-one else could. The Algerian in France is the nigger in America."

[...]


[James Baldwin]: "The 20 years, 22 years from 1948 and 1971. 
And speaking, you know, speaking now as Jimmy, you know,
and speaking as a Black American who was, you know, who was once as young as these children are now, and why I left my country, I left it because I knew I was gonna be murdered there."

[...]

Do you think you could describe yourself as a revolutionary writer?
[James Baldwin]: "I don't know what I am. I'm a writer in a revolutionary situation."

[...]

But, I mean, everybody's been in love...
[James Baldwin]: "Has everyone been in love? ... If everyone had been in love, they'd treat their children differently. They'd treat each other differently."

[...]

In a literal sense, you're writing for white people. Are you aware of that?
[James Baldwin]: "I'm writing for people, baby. 
I don't believe in white people. I don't believe in Black people either, for that matter.
But I know the difference between being Black and white at this time.
It means that I cannot fool myself about some things that I could fool myself about, if I were white."

[...]

[James Baldwin]: "if you break faith with what you know...
that's a betrayal of many, many, many, many people.
I may know six people, but that's enough.
Love has never been a popular movement and no-one's ever wanted really to be free.
The world is held together, really it is,
held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people."

[...]

[James Baldwin]: "I'm aware, you know, that I and the people I love may perish in the morning.
I know that. But there's light on our faces now.
If you live under the shadow of death, it gives you a certain freedom.
I'm perfectly happy, odd as it sounds, and relatively free."

James Baldwin (Meeting the man, 1970)

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