A special 25th Anniversary screening and discussion of the documentary James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (87 minutes) by filmmaker Karen Thorsen. This award-winning co-production from Maysles Films and PBS/American Masters will be released by California Newsreel (distributor) in honor of what would have been James Baldwin’s 90th birthday.

This is the New York City premiere of the newly restored HD version of the original 16mm film. James Baldwin (1924-1987) was at once a major 20th-century American author, a Civil Rights activist, and, for two crucial decades, a prophetic voice calling Americans, Black and white, to confront their shared racial tragedy. James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket captures on film the passionate intellect and courageous writing of a man who was born Black, impoverished, gay, and gifted. Using striking archival footage, newsreel clips, and interviews with writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, William Styron, and biographer David Leeming, the film places Baldwin’s work in the African-American literary tradition— from slave narratives and black preaching to their own contemporary work.

Followed by Q&A with filmmaker Karen Thorsen and Ricardo Montez, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the Humanities Department at the School of Undergraduate Studies, The New School, moderated by Michelle Materre, Assistant Professor, School of Media Studies at The New School, Curator/Producer, Creatively Speaking Film Series.

This screening is part of the year-long, city-wide celebration The Year of James Baldwin. The Year of James Baldwin is presented in partnership with Harlem Stage, Columbia University School of the Arts and New York Live Arts, and in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the School of Media Studies, and the School of Writing at The New School.

The film’s digital restoration was made at Goldcrest Post with support from The Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maysles Documentary Center, and Stan & Joanne Marder.