James Baldwin: the price of the ticket

Duration: 90

Year Published: 1989

Creator: Mayles Films

Format: 16mm

Color: Color & B&W

Sound: sound

Description: This film combines archival footage, home movies, television clips, and interviews with colleagues to trace the life of Black author, James Baldwin. Born in Harlem, the eldest of nine children, Baldwin wrote his first play at age eight and went on to write such influential works as Go tell it on the mountain, Giovanni's room, Another country, and The fire next time. The documentary dicusses his life in France and Turkey, his homosexuality and his return to the U.S. to participate in the Civil Rights Movement. This comprehensive biography concludes with his death from cancer in 1987 and his funeral at New York's St. John the Divine. Among those who reminisce about the author are Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, William Styron, and Baldwin's biographer David Leeming.