“Dick Fontaine’s charged and intimate portrait of James Baldwin follows the great writer at a pivotal moment late in his life; as he made the difficult return for the first time to key sites of the Civil Rights Movement to reconnect with friends and activists and reflect, often with stark candour, upon the achievements and failures of the struggle for racial justice. Fontaine makes remarkable use of archival footage to make powerfully vivid the experience of Baldwin and legendary figures such as Fred Shuttlesworth and Amira Baraka whose searing testimony speak with startling relevance to the present day. Carefully structured as a conversation, looking back, between Baldwin and his brother David, the newly restored I Heard It Through the Grapevine offers a multi-layered meditation on history and memory and offers a vital resource for the important critical reappraisal of Baldwin’s late career now being launched by scholars such as Eddie Glaude, Jr. and Robert Reid-Pharr.” (Haden Guest) 
 
Followed by a conversation between Dick Fontaine and Haden Guest (Harvard Film Archive).