film

In Motion: Amiri Baraka

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Producer(s)	St. Clair Bourne
Director(s)	St. Clair Bourne
Release Date	1999
Work In Progress	n
Runtime	60 min
Youth Media	n

Film Description

IN MOTION: AMIRI BARAKA is a documentary videowork about the major spokesperson for the Black consciousness movement in America and a major figure on the American literary and radical political landscape from the late 1950s to the present. Set in Newark, New Jersey, the Greenwich Village and Harlem sections of New York City, The documentary records Baraka's activities during the two weeks before his trial for “resisting arrest” and ends with his conviction despite widespread support and allegations of police harrassment for his radical activities.

Using his busy schedule as the narrative framework, the documentary starts with Baraka at home with his family preparing for a press conference at the American Writers Congress, a gathering to organize a writers' union. Narrative vignettes introduce his parents, his Greenwich Village writing colleagues (Allen Ginsberg, Joel Oppenheimer, A. B. Spellman) and fellow activists (Ted Wilson, Askia Toure) from the Harlem Black Arts era of the 1960s. Teaching a college class, hosting his radio show, performing poetry and speaking at an anti-apartheid rally - these various segments provide more insight into the revolutionary character of this noted writer/activist. There are also sections from his plays DUTCHMAN and BOY AND TARZAN IN A CLEARING as well as an electronic performance piece WEIMAR 2. Interspersed throughout the videowork are humorous, revealing interviews by Baraka himself, his friends and colleagues whose critical remarks add to an understanding of the period as well as the man.