I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE (1982)– Restored James Baldwin Documentary

As part of their July series "US Tour," 7th House is proud to present Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley's recently restored 1982 documentary I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE, their long underseen, enthralling, and monumental film which follows writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin as he returns to America, touring pivotal sites of Black American history as he retraces his time — decades earlier — in the South during the civil rights movement. Infused with his ever fiery intellect and razor sharp insight, Baldwin is not simply the subject of the film but a creative collaborator, guiding Hartley and Fontaine along the deeply intimate voyage, shaping the film as they go.

"A child during Jim Crow, Baldwin never felt at ease in the United States, first finding comfort and community abroad in Paris and later in Saint-Paul de Vence. Yet, he continued to write about the fraught existence of Black Americans and Black Europeans, and his returns to the US fueled his personal philosophy. On one such homecoming, in 1980, Baldwin acts as a docent through the history of the Civil Rights Movement, guiding filmmakers Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley on a tour of his roots in the South for a documentary essay that “lays bare the fiction of progress in post-Civil Rights America” (Writer, programmer and Baldwin scholar Rich Blint).

Along his travels, Baldwin is joined by fellow Black literary luminaries and movement compatriots, including Things Fall Apart author Chinua Achebe, writer Amiri Baraka, poet and scholar Sterling A. Brown, and civil rights leader Lonnie King. Together, they look back and reflect on the nation's failure to deliver upon the promise of equal human rights the movement so struggled for and the fallacy of post-Civil Rights American progress. As Baldwin observes – with words still too true – "Everything has changed on the surface. Nothing else has been touched."

Over 40 years since its minimal release (it had only a limited theatrical run at NYC's Film Forum and a PBS broadcast), this long criminally underseen work has been lovingly restored by Harvard Film Archive and distributed by The Film Desk.

“The strength of I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE lies not so much in the future it prescribes or predicts but rather in the stories it recalls and the emotions it revives. Baldwin and directors Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley have used their talents to add new images that inform and move us deeply.”– David Remnick, Washington Post

“A valuable reminder of the civil rights period as it retraces the pulsating panorama and some of the poignant pauses in the history of the struggle. It is more important now than it would’ve been five years ago.”– Ali Stanton, New York Amsterdam News

“An admixture of poetry and politics that is extremely well made. Baldwin (from the actual locations) offers present day thought, poetry, and reflection. The windows of the past fill the screen and the Movement’s proud and painful lessons of heroism, sacrifice, dedication, and even death, become vividly clear.”– Charles Rogers, New York Voice

“As much an essay as a documentary, with Baldwin a seemingly eager participant and co-author of the work. Baldwin and his old comrades have no time for nostalgia. They’re clear-eyed and angry about the murders of dear friends and about how little progress was made despite the sacrifices. I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE gives lie to the comforting notion that suffering and sacrifice lead inevitably to justice and progress. It’s a harsh truth, precisely and artfully rendered.”– Darren Hughes, Filmmaker Magazine

Dirs. Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley, 1982, 95 mins, United States, English, Unrated, Digital.

Special thanks to Jacob Perlin and Andrew Adair of The Film Desk.

Tickets: $12 (In Person Event Only)

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