James Baldwin and Britain

The Devil Finds Work: James Baldwin Through Film

Through the ideas in James Baldwin's seminal text The Devil Finds Work, this series of films and discussions explores Black representation in contemporary cinema.

Taking the book The Devil Finds work by James Baldwin, one of the most influential writers and activists of the 20th century, we present a season of films and conversations discussing Black representation in contemporary cinema. 

Baldwin's 1976 book is a deeply personal, imaginative and theoretically complex exploration of American filmmaking, stardom, racial politics, the powerful effect on the personal and social consciousness that films produce.

This series explores James Baldwin’s approaches to cinema and criticism placing the films in dialogue with literature, popular culture, politics, and society. The full line up of guests for the ScreenTalks announced soon. 

This programme has been curated by Dr. Clive Chijioke Nwonka, an Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society at UCL, and a Faculty Associate of the UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Nwonka is the author of the book Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Film (2023).

This project is part of the ‘James Baldwin and Britain’ project (2024-2027), led by Douglas Field, Kennetta Hammond Perry and Rob Waters, with thanks for the generous support by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

2 May 2024 00:00 — 23:00
The Barbican
  • Open Meeting
  • This is a past event

This season presents a number of films which engage with the two central concerns with Baldwin's text: the ways in which the critique of the nation’s cinema also forms as a critique of Black identity within the nation; and Baldwin’s own personal experiences of film culture and the social, cultural and political questions that accompany Black people’s consuming of moving images within cinematic spaces.

Far beyond the depiction of the uncomplicated repertoire of negative Black representation within Hollywood, The Devil Finds Work frames beautifully 

the autobiographical experiences of American society as viewed by him through his encounters with films such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Exorcist, In the Heat of the Night and The Defiant Ones.

Despite being published nearly 50 years ago, The Devil Finds Work, and Baldwin’s ideas and reflections, remain a valuable if still underexplored account of the exploration of Black cinematic representation and looking practices.