An interview with James Baldwin, conducted over half a century ago and freely available in its entirety online might seem like an unlikely subject for a truncated 9-minute short film. However, the 1963 interview conducted with the American writer by Peter Duval Smith for the BBC’s Bookshelf Programme is somewhat reframed in The Baldwin Archives, a dramatic re-enactment devised by and starring Tory Devan Smith and directed by Laura Seay. Baldwin’s words rarely lack power on their own merit, but by using the tools of fiction storytelling, Seay’s film is able to channel something of the force of his discourse and his magnetism.
One of the most striking ways that The Baldwin Archives transforms a largely verbatim exchange is through the deployment of the reaction shot. In the actual broadcast, Duval Smith remains largely off camera, a disembodied voice provoking responses from Baldwin who is captured in a familiar, talking-head-style mid-shot. Here, John Orphan’s camera is far more agile, framing Baldwin (Smith) and Duval Smith (Jordan Gavaris) in proximity to one another. By being able to cut more regularly between the interlocutors, the eloquence and substance of Baldwin’s answers become more visceral. We feel the genuine impact of his words and, in the glances shared between the two men, Baldwin’s charm and charisma, even when conversing on weighty or difficult topics. It helps that Smith’s take on Baldwin is able to freely drift from the sober to the seductive.
The other key tool used by Smith the screenwriter is the liberal edit of the original conversation – the BBC programme was 30 minutes long, while the short is less than a third of that. By eliding the different elements of the back-and-forth, the pace and energy of the dialogue cultivate a fervent atmosphere. While watching Baldwin on screen may be the closest approximation to literally reading his writing, here the filmmakers manage to convey something of the experience of being enrapt in his prose and his point of view. For a film adapting a run-of-the-mill television interview, this is a fairly remarkable achievement.
Director:Laura Seay
Screenplay: Tory Devon Smith
Cast: Tory Devon Smith, Jordan Gavaris
Producers: Sharon Scott Brooking, Jesse Abbott Chin, Lamont Lamar, Briauana Draper, Laura Seay
Cinematography: John Orphan
Editing: Alex Jones
Music: Corece Smith
Venue: HollyShorts
In English
9 minutes
