feature: “restored james baldwin documentary timely as ever”

1989 documentary ‘James Baldwin: The Price Of The Ticket’ has been digitally restored and was recently shown in Chacago. Nina Metz of Chicago Tribune reports: “Originally conceived as a cinema verite project, the filmmakers were to follow Baldwin as he worked on his next book. Karen Thorsen was on board as producer, and renowned documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles was at the helm.” [After Baldwin died in 1987], Thorsen took over as director and adopted a style she calls cinema verite passe, “which just means cinema verite in the past tense.” Most of the film is footage of Baldwin himself — TV interviews, but also informal footage shot throughout various periods of his life, including his time in a small Swiss village when he wrote what would become his most famous novel, 1953’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”
Excerpt from the film: “When you were starting out as a writer you were black, impoverished, homosexual. You had to have said to yourself, ‘Gee, how disadvantaged can I get?’ ” Unflappable, Baldwin almost laughs: “Oh no, I thought I hit the jackpot — it was so outrageous, you could not go any further. So you had to find a way to use it.” Read more here.

http://jamesbaldwinproject.org/