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The Devil Finds Work

An Essay

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The Devil Finds Work

Written by: James Baldwin
Narrated by: Dion Graham
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About this listen

Baldwin's personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics.

Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist.

Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.

©1976 James Baldwin (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Entertainment
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book-length essay by James Baldwin. Part memoir, part cultural critique, it weaves his personal experiences with cinema into a sharp indictment of racism in American film (I just wished I had seen more of the films he lambasts).

Baldwin argues that Hollywood creates “fantastical national fictions” that conceal a deep spiritual poverty while consistently misrepresenting or erasing Black lives. In doing so, cinema performs the “devil’s work” of distracting audiences from the brutal realities of racism and injustice . Written in the 70s this argument is still urgent.

Memoir & Critique of American filmaking

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