Digital Desperados In Motion: Amiri Baraka

Dir St. Clair Bourne | 60 mins | USA | 1983

This documentary follows Amiri Baraka - a major figure in the black arts movement - as he simultaneously navigates being arrested for sitting in his car when black and organising his defence against this whilst living his life. A life of family, poetry, the beat, community, friends and political struggle on behalf of black people.

The film visits Baraka at home preparing for the American Writers Congress, teaching a college class, hosting a jazz and commentary radio show, reading poetry, and speaking at an anti-apartheid rally. Interviews with writers Allen Ginsberg, Joel Oppenheimer, and A.B. Spellman, and activists Ted Wilson and Askia Toure provide insight into the modern day revolutionary, and the period which fostered him.

The film is fully subtitled and the introduction will have BSL for deaf and hard of hearing audience members.