This is a pastiche film that blends archival footage and photographs with old Hollywood movie clips and a running dialogue of Baldwin's words from the few seeds of a book idea he only started. It never seamlessly all fits together in a satisfying manner, but most of what Baldwin spoke of all those years ago, unfortunately, still rings true today.
An important film to be sure, but it didn't really tell me almost anything I didn't already know, although I would guess I am in the minority here. As the great Frederick Douglass stated long ago, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will." That is true whether one is on the 'wrong' side of the color line, the socioeconomic line, the political line or the gender line.
Considering the limited source material and what the director was trying to (ostensibly) achieve, it was well put-together technically, but even at 1:35 it felt a little long. Still, Baldwin's words remain powerful, and seeing him and hearing them all these years later reminds us of the old saw, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."
An important film to be sure, but it didn't really tell me almost anything I didn't already know, although I would guess I am in the minority here. As the great Frederick Douglass stated long ago, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will." That is true whether one is on the 'wrong' side of the color line, the socioeconomic line, the political line or the gender line.
Considering the limited source material and what the director was trying to (ostensibly) achieve, it was well put-together technically, but even at 1:35 it felt a little long. Still, Baldwin's words remain powerful, and seeing him and hearing them all these years later reminds us of the old saw, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."