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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.
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00:29A CIDADE NO BRASIL
00:29Baldwin agreed to make a film about his life as a writer, rather than as a political figure.
00:35Paris seemed an obvious location, as it was here that his career as a successful writer began.
00:40Several of his books are set in Paris, and he still spends a lot of his time here.
00:46Filming began normally enough.
00:48Baldwin reminisced about his original decision to leave New York.
00:53When and why did I ever come to Paris?
00:56When was November 11th, 1948?
00:59It was a matter of life or death.
01:01You can't turn your back in America long enough to write a book or to find out who you are.
01:11I had to be in a desperate situation to come so far with $40.
01:19I don't know how I lived.
01:21I sold my clothes, I remember that.
01:24I sold my typewriter, I remember that.
01:27And some people got very nasty with me because I didn't have any money.
01:32I heard the streets, of course.
01:34You know, like, I can't describe.
01:37Anyone who's been there knows what I did.
01:40And anyone who hasn't been, I cannot tell.
01:43You know.
01:45I don't know what I did.
01:48I got through one day to the next.
01:49You know, four years.
01:51How I did it, I don't know.
01:54No one I knew had any money.
01:57It was a great terror.
01:58I was not letting my family know.
02:00Because what could they do?
02:03Except, you know, just be scared shitless that Jimmy wasn't in trouble.
02:08Miles and miles away.
02:09They couldn't do anything about it.
02:14After shooting began, Baldwin's attitude started to change, and he became less cooperative.
02:20He did, however, agree to be filmed in the Algerian quarter, the Harlem of Paris.
02:26I must say, the Algerians, they were very nice to me because they understood the city, and I did not.
02:31I didn't know these streets.
02:33And they protected me in these streets.
02:36And no one else could have.
02:39The Algerian in France is a nigger in America.
02:42By now, Baldwin was saying that he was no longer interested in his work as a writer, or his time
02:48in Paris.
02:49He suddenly refused to film sequences depicting his present life here.
02:53I'm not really back in Paris.
02:57I'm not going to stay here, that I know.
02:59Where do you think we're sitting?
03:00In Paris?
03:03Next door to Washington?
03:04Next door to Washington, my country runs the world, owns the world, as Mr. Heath will probably be glad to
03:12tell you.
03:13I'm in a position in which everyone in the world can claim me, and has the right to claim me.
03:21I'm one of the very few dark people in the world who have a voice.
03:39By this time, Baldwin was quite hostile to us, and had attracted a group of black American students whom he
03:45wanted to accompany him whenever he was filming.
03:47One of them was particularly dominant, and insisted, with Baldwin's agreement, that we film at the Place de la Bastille,
03:55symbol of the French Revolution.
03:56I told you I was going to ask him, man.
03:59Can you tell us why we're here, in this place?
04:03Yes, people came out of those streets not very long ago to jet down this prison.
04:08And my point is, the prison is still really here.
04:13You know, we build it all the time.
04:15I'm speaking more about my own country than I'm speaking about France.
04:19I represented at this moment many political prisoners in America.
04:24That's why I wanted to come here today.
04:27Is that also why you, I mean, you veered this film off your literary work.
04:33What?
04:34You veered the film off your literary work, and on to what you feel, rather than what you write.
04:44It isn't much what I feel, Terry.
04:47It's what I know.
04:50If my work is any good, it'll last.
04:52No, I haven't got to talk about that.
04:55There's nothing to be said about it.
04:56But I do know what is happening now.
05:01You know, I'm not so much a writer as I'm a citizen.
05:05And I've got to be a witness to something which I know.
05:08So why won't you allow us to project you through your work, instead of you as you are?
05:16I'm perfectly willing to.
05:18I will see how you can do it.
05:23You know.
05:25Well, we had a system, we had a scheme.
05:27But I didn't want to do it for you.
05:57Yes.
05:57O que você está fazendo errado? Você está dizendo que eu estou fazendo errado.
06:00Dizem-me.
06:00Em primeiro lugar, você não está honesta.
06:02Em que modo?
06:03Ok.
06:06Eu expliquei a você que nós queríamos fazer coisas em um certo certo certo, certo?
06:09Não, você não.
06:11Nós falamos sobre isso um minuto.
06:13Expla-me de novo.
06:14Eu disse que nós tínhamos perguntas a pergunta, certo?
06:18Sim.
06:18Eu disse que nós tínhamos perguntas em um certo certo certo?
06:21E você concorda?
06:22Você não perguntou?
06:23Sim, eu disse.
06:24Não me lembro do que você era em memória.
06:25Eu disse que você era em memória.
06:26O que foi a primeira pergunta que você era em?
06:28Você sabe bem.
06:29Eu não estou falando isso.
06:30O que foi a primeira pergunta que você era em?
06:31Eu era em mim?
06:32Eu perguntava-me por quê ele estava aqui,
06:32por isso que nós concordamos para perguntar.
06:34O que é o que foi o que ele estava em?
06:35Não, não era o que ele estava em mim?
06:37Sim, sim, era.
06:38Entra-me o que foi e eu vou para responder isso agora.
06:40Eu disse que você era em mim.
06:42Como ele conta para a questão do que o Bastille hoje é o maior maior monumento na França?
06:49Perio.
06:50Não é o seguinte coisa.
06:51A pergunta que temos que perguntar é por que você acha que a Bastille é o monumento mais popular em
06:57França hoje?
07:09Não é o mais popular.
07:14Então, por que eu disse que perguntar essa pergunta?
07:21Eu quero dizer que há uma importância para este monumento, que eu tenho perguntado.
07:25Eu tenho sido desafiado, eu tenho sido criticado,
07:28e eu tenho sido contado que eu não me perguntar a questão do certo.
07:31Então, como eu deveria ter perguntado?
07:34É uma pergunta honesta.
07:39Sarei, eu sei o que está acontecendo aqui.
07:42O que está acontecendo?
07:43O que está acontecendo é que ele tem algo em sua mente, e algo em minha mente, também.
07:50O que você não vê muito bem,
07:53e agora você está fazendo algo mais contra a sua vontade,
07:56sem saber o que é.
07:59Olha, eu não estou interessado em Jimmy Baldwin's Paris.
08:03Eu não estou interessado em minha 22 anos em esta cidade.
08:08Não importa, certo?
08:10O que é importante é que eu sou um survivor de algo e uma witness de algo.
08:16Isso é o que importa.
08:18Isso é o que importa.
08:19Isso é tudo que importa.
08:20Não estou falando para mim.
08:23Eu estou muito muito...
08:24Eu estou muito muito orgulhoso de uma coisa, para falar para minha própria obra.
08:29Minha obra pode falar para si mesmo, mas não.
08:31Mas eu sou um homem negro no meio de este ano,
08:36e eu estou falando para isso.
08:38para todos vocês, para todos vocês, para todos vocês, para todos vocês, para todos vocês.
08:41Para todos vocês, para todos vocês.
08:42Porque todos vocês não sabem ainda quem este dark estranho é.
08:48Nenhum de vocês conhecem.
08:50E isso é o que essa quarrel é realmente sobre.
08:53Eu não sei o que vocês acham que eu sou.
08:59Eu não sei o que vocês acham que eu sou.
09:10Eu não sei o que Carlos está dizendo, mas eu estou dizendo isso.
09:14Porque ele está olhando o que ele está olhando,
09:17e não é outra razão.
09:19Não é outra razão.
09:22Não é outra razão.
09:22Ele pode ser morto no dia.
09:23Isso não é verdadeira de vocês.
09:25Não é verdadeira de vocês.
09:30Isso é verdadeira de ele.
09:32Isso é o que a sua civilização é.
09:34E isso é o que você não quer saber.
09:37Eu conheço homens como homens toda minha vida.
09:39Muitos deles são mortos.
09:42Porque eles são negros.
09:44Mas você diz isso.
09:46Você diz isso.
09:47Nós podemos dizer que nós sabemos isso.
09:49Nós sabemos isso.
09:50E é por isso que nós estamos aqui.
09:51Então, como você sabe que nós não sabemos isso?
09:55Eu sei que você não sabe isso porque você fala com ele.
09:58Eu estou tentando solicitar algo de ele.
10:01Eu estou tentando conseguir ele comunicar com mim em uma forma de verdadeira,
10:03que ele não está.
10:04Ele está comunicando com mim com uma barreira.
10:08Ele não está.
10:09Você não está.
10:10Ele não está.
10:12Ele não está.
10:12Ele não está.
10:14Ele não está.
10:16Ele não está.
10:17Ele está.
10:19Ele não está.
10:29Ele está.
10:31Ele está.
10:41para você fazer isso?
10:46O que eu quero dizer é que...
10:52quando eles tornaram essa prisão,
10:55foi um grande evento na história da Europa.
10:57E a Europa entende isso.
11:03Eu estou tentando tirar a prisão, também.
11:07Eu estou tentando, ainda não ocorre na Europa.
11:12Eu ainda estou, para a Europa, a savagem.
11:17Quando um homem branco teus de prisão,
11:20ele está tentando liberar ele.
11:22Quando eu teus de prisão,
11:24eu estou tentando um outro savagem.
11:27Porque você não entende
11:30que você, para mim,
11:32é meu prisão.
11:34Você é meu guarda.
11:36Eu estou tentando você.
11:40Não você, Terry.
11:43Mas você, o inglês.
11:44Você, o inglês.
11:45Você, o francês.
11:46A whole forma de vida,
11:48a whole sistema de pensamento,
11:51que me deixou em prisão até esta hora.
11:55Mas por que nós estamos aqui?
11:57Você está tentando descobrir.
11:59E eu estou dizendo o que você não sabe.
12:01Você está tentando descobrir?
12:03Sim, você está tentando.
12:07Sim.
12:08Você está tentando.
12:08Você está tentando.
12:09Nós temos, como você diz,
12:11uma grande falta de comunicação,
12:12porque eu estou tentando fazer algo que você...
12:18Você já sabe a resposta.
12:21Eu estou tentando encontrar a resposta.
12:23Eu estou tentando mostrar a resposta.
12:25Eu sei.
12:25Eu tenho que falar com alguém.
12:29Eu tenho que falar com alguém.
12:30Eu vou ter esse filme feito.
12:31Você tem que falar com alguém.
12:33Eu tenho que falar com alguém.
12:33Eu tenho que falar com alguém.
12:34É o somente.
12:36É o estúdio?
12:41É a conversa.
12:46As a young Baptist preacher in Harlem, it became very apparent.
12:51Alright, now Fabian has already told me she hasn't read any of James' books, right?
12:55And I know that she's only met him the other day.
12:59So I'm going to ask her, what does she think of him?
13:03Being black, I respected him as a black man, especially as a black writer.
13:10And you're older than I am, so I respected you, sort of like I respect my parents.
13:16And you've achieved in the world.
13:22You've gotten up, you've made your name known to the world.
13:28Because I'm young, I'm only 20 years old.
13:31And you're sort of like inspiration to the young black people in America.
13:35The first time I had the opportunity of reading your book, Another Country, I Believe.
13:42This was quite some time ago.
13:44But that was the first book I ever read from cover to cover.
13:48And I haven't read another since.
13:52And really, and I still remember the characters and everything.
13:56And this really did a lot for me, you know.
13:58I know that from my own point of view, you know, it was, it was, in a sense, all for
14:05you, you know.
14:09I mean, I know that I love you.
14:11I know.
14:12But you haven't necessarily got to know that, you know.
14:20And I suppose I never thought that I would live to hear you say that you love me.
14:29That sounds very corny.
14:31But you know what I mean.
14:33In his essays, if you've read them.
14:35Jimmy does talk about coming to Paris.
14:37Is it possible for you to talk to him about why you individually left the States and compare it with
14:42why he individually left the States?
14:43It ain't nobody else's business, really.
14:45Well, I'll tell you why it's nobody's business.
14:46All right.
14:47Because it's not relevant to anyone with us, but us.
14:50It doesn't help anyone or it doesn't hurt anyone.
14:52We can talk about it, but, like, we don't want to talk to you about it.
14:55But I can tell you something about it.
14:57Yes.
14:57You know, right.
14:58The 20 years, the 22 years from 1948 and 1971, and speaking, you know, speaking now as Jimmy, you know,
15:09and speaking as a black American who was, you know, who was once as young as these children are now.
15:15And why I left my country.
15:18I left it because I knew I was going to be murdered there.
15:23And when I say that, I'm not, you know, exaggerating.
15:26That's not a melodramatic statement.
15:28I mean that I mean that I could not have hoped to live if I had stayed there.
15:41Now, I come from a country which is very proud of calling itself a democracy and is very proud of
15:45what it calls progress.
15:48And I'm pointing out to you that 22 years later, boys and girls just like I was then, in spite
16:00of all that democracy and all that progress, had to leave the country, our country, for the same reason that
16:07I left it.
16:09In 1948, there was Truman in the White House, right?
16:16And he just dropped a bomb in Hiroshima.
16:21And in 1971, there's who in the White House?
16:25A little dick next to him.
16:29Richard Milhouse.
16:30What do they expect from us, the darker brother?
16:36Right on, right on, right on.
16:38I've had a hard life.
16:41No.
16:45Right on.
16:49But my dear,
16:53no, really, I know it sounds a terrible thing to say.
16:58I would not be a white American for all the tea in China, all the oil in Texas.
17:08I really wouldn't like to have to live with all those lies.
17:20This is what is irreducible and awful.
17:23You, the English, you, the French, you, the West, you, the Christians, you can't help but feel that there is
17:30something that you can do for me, that you can save me.
17:37And you don't yet know that I have endured your salvation so long, I cannot afford it anymore.
17:48Not another moment of your salvation.
17:54And that I, I, I, I can save you.
18:03I know something about you.
18:08I know something about you.
18:10You don't know anything about me.
18:11Amen.
18:11Amen.
18:12Amen.
18:13And that is where it really is.
18:16You could find out like this.
18:18Amen.
18:20Amen.
18:20It's a matter, it's a matter almost of a division of, how can I put it?
18:23Division of labor.
18:24Division of labor.
18:25Thank you.
18:26Right.
18:27He can do some things that you can't do.
18:29I know this.
18:30You can do some things that he can't do.
18:33Mighty power.
18:34I can do some things that neither of you can do.
18:36Right.
18:37You know, I know I can't drive a truck.
18:39You made me feel myself.
18:41No.
18:41And I can't run a bank.
18:42Right on.
18:43And I can't count.
18:45Right on.
18:46No.
18:46And I can't lead a, and I can't lead a movement.
18:49But I can fuck up your mind.
18:51Right on.
18:55And he can straighten up your mind, too.
18:57What's gonna happen?
18:59Sooner or later.
19:00Oh, the wretched of the earth.
19:04In one way or another.
19:08Next Tuesday or next Wednesday.
19:13We'll destroy the cobblestones in which London and Rome and Paris are built.
19:20The world will change.
19:23Because it has to change.
19:26And the Pope will die.
19:29Because the church is a criminal church.
19:34The party is over.
19:38That is what is going to happen.
19:53It was only after this group witness that Baldwin finally agreed to talk personally about his difficult position as a
19:59political figure and a creative writer.
20:02After all, I, no one asked me to be a writer.
20:06No.
20:07I asked for it.
20:09So, you know, I can't, I can't really complain.
20:15No.
20:16It comes with the territory.
20:18I was born at a certain time, in a certain skin, in a certain place.
20:24And you pay for it.
20:25Everybody pays for that.
20:28Do you think you could describe yourself as a revolutionary writer?
20:32I don't know what I am.
20:33I'm a writer in a revolutionary situation.
20:36I never thought of becoming revolutionary at all.
20:40You express your ideas in terms of a mental transformation on the part of white people.
20:46How much do you think your fictional work is therefore stronger than your essays, in that they are more subversive?
20:59It's a leading question.
21:01And it's impossible for anybody, you know, I can't answer that.
21:04You know, I write the essays, I write the books.
21:07And what you make of them is, what you don't make of those things, isn't up to me.
21:14I know that, you know, in principle, a play or a novel, if it works,
21:26is much more dangerous for the writer and the reader.
21:30It's much easier to dismiss the fire next time as an argument
21:34with which one can agree or disagree, like a debate.
21:38Whereas in another country, you are faced with some very real human situations
21:43with which no one can not identify in some way or another.
21:51Oh, that depends on many things.
21:53Many people can fail to identify with the people in another country.
21:58In fact, they do.
22:00You know, I mean, in life. I mean, I'm not talking about my book.
22:04But you mean, everybody's been in love. Everyone's had a love affair.
22:07Has anyone been in love?
22:09Everyone's had a love affair which has been threatened. Don't you think that's so?
22:11Not on the basis of the evidence. If they have, they've forgotten it.
22:17You can't prove it by me that everyone's been in love.
22:22If everyone had been in love, they'd treat their children differently.
22:26They'd treat each other differently.
22:29Yes, well, but perhaps that is one of the points in another country
22:33which seems to me as much about love as about anything else.
22:36It is about love. It's about the price of love, too.
22:41Which is the price of life.
22:43Yes, but people don't seem to realize that.
22:46In a literal sense, you're writing for white people. Are you aware of that?
22:50I'm writing for people, baby.
22:52No, I don't believe in white people.
22:55I don't believe in black people either, for that matter.
22:58But I know the difference between being black and white at this time.
23:04It means that I cannot fool myself about some things.
23:07But I could fool myself about if I were white.
23:10But more white people read your novels, I believe, than black people.
23:14Well, black people may not read them, but they steal them.
23:17And they sell them. They're hot in bars.
23:21You do spend a long time between novels. Why is that?
23:24Well, I'm that kind of writer. There's no answer to that.
23:27You know, some people write... I wish I was George Simonov.
23:30I'll write them in two weeks, but I can't.
23:33And, you know, everybody works the way they can work.
23:36I must point out, though, too, that I've been working in the last few years between assassinations.
23:43That doesn't make it any easier either.
23:45I mean, they're killing my friends.
23:48It's as simple as that.
23:52And I've been all the years that I've been alive.
23:56For no reasons which, you know, which have any validity.
24:00Why don't you just want to get away from somewhere and sit down and write your books?
24:03Why don't you want to do that?
24:05Because I'm better than that.
24:11But you don't have to be better than that.
24:12Oh, I do.
24:16So you don't agree, then?
24:18I mean, when people say, oh, it's okay for him, he's escaped.
24:22What have I escaped?
24:27Where, anyway, would I go to escape?
24:31To your country?
24:37Would I get a political asylum here?
24:45Where would a fleeing black man go?
24:51If he wanted to escape?
24:55There may not be, you know, as much humanity in the world as one would like to see.
24:59But there is some.
25:01There's more than one would think.
25:03In any case, if you break faith with what you know,
25:10that's a betrayal of many, many, many, many people.
25:14I may know six people, but that's enough.
25:22Love has never been a popular movement.
25:26And no one's ever wanted, really, to be free.
25:30The world is held together.
25:31Really, it is held together.
25:33By the love and the passion of very few people.
25:40Otherwise, of course, you can despair.
25:42Walk down the street of any city, any afternoon,
25:46and look around you.
25:49What you've got to remember is that what you're looking at is also you.
25:54Everyone you're looking at is also you.
25:58You could be that person.
26:00You could be that monster.
26:02You could be that cop.
26:07And you have to decide on yourself not to be.
26:18The logic of despair is for me.
26:20You know, cut your throat, right?
26:23But there's something wrong, you know,
26:25someone who says he's in despair keeps on writing.
26:28Because the sparing man doesn't write.
26:31Anyway, it's too easy. It's too fashionable.
26:34I'm aware, you know, that I and the people I love
26:37may perish in the morning.
26:39I know that.
26:40But there's a light on our faces now.
26:43If you live under the shadow of death,
26:45it gives you a certain freedom.
26:47I'm perfectly happy.
26:48How does it sound?
26:50You know, and relatively free.
27:08I know.
27:09I know.
27:21I know.
27:26I know.
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