Filmmakers Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley follow James Baldwin on an overwhelming, epic journey through haunted spaces of the South where crucial events in the fight for civil rights took place. Though Baldwin’s presence and words guide this emotional trip, he is often the one asking the questions, making room for others to talk about how the past has led to the present. An astonishing array of civil rights activists, leaders and writers—including his brother David Baldwin, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Amiri Baraka, Chinua Achebe and David Dennis—join Baldwin at the sites of decisive and traumatic turning points. His stops include Atlanta, Birmingham, Selma, New Orleans and Philadelphia, Mississippi where activists Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney were murdered. Many places, like that of the Newark riots, remain virtually unchanged and neglected, while others, such as the former slave market in St. Augustine, Florida, lie hidden in plain sight, completely unacknowledged. Fontaine underlines the stories with clips unearthed from a vast amount of archival footage, lending a graphic shock and disturbing presence to events that will inevitably recall recent crimes in the minds of contemporary viewers. Alongside the violence and injustice, Baldwin also finds wisdom and community, bravery and determination, music, joy and creativity. Unlike the “irrelevant” civil rights monuments Baldwin decries for their lack of life and meaning, this film stands as a vital, moving testament to the multitude of horrors, victories and voices that make up a complicated battle that continues to evolve, but not end.

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