[James] Baldwin is needed even more today because he helps you focus to the essential, to what is important.
Raoul Peck[James] Baldwin was a celebrity. A TV show like Kenneth Clark could put him aside of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. He was, at least, one of the three most important spokesmen of the movement and of the black community.
Raoul PeckFrom a young age, [James Baldwin] was watching all those different films. He's watching John Wayne killing off the Indians. He came to the point that the Indians were him. You had to educate yourself because the movies were not educating you. The movies were giving you a reflection of you that was not the truth. That's the trick. The movie was also giving a reflection of what the country is. Basically, a country that wanted itself to be innocent. That's the ambivalence of Hollywood.
Raoul PeckToday, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.
Raoul Peck