James Baldwin was a distinguished black writer and an outspoken critic of race relations in America. There are elements of a traditional doc in this film, but it’s more an artistic treatise using Baldwin’s eloquent words (quietly voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) and charismatic on-screen appearances to delineate his musings on the subject. It’s supported with disturbing historical photos and excerpts from Hollywood films. There is a focus on 3 great leaders of the civil rights movement (Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King), but the extended analysis sometimes becomes repetitive or seems to ramble. Even so, this is a forceful examination that sadly still rings true more than 50 years later.
(4 / 5)