Groundbreaking author James Baldwin starts I Heard It Through the Grapevine by turning the pages of a collection of archival photos taken during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He remarks on how he left Paris in 1957 to join antiracist protesters in Mississippi, who were demanding that integration be implemented. Now that 25 years have passed, he’s left with a lingering question. What has changed, and what hasn’t?

It would be impossible to cover the entire ground of Baldwin’s work within the Civil Rights Movement, so this documentary takes a free-form approach to Baldwin’s journey, starting with the people closest in his life and evolving to include people whom he hasn’t seen in decades. The car Baldwin travels in becomes a sort of time machine, taking him to locations that transport him back in time while keeping his feet firmly on the ground. With interspersed archival footage of police brutality against protesters and other historical events, you get the sense that history hasn’t remained static, but instead evolved into a different form.

It’s fascinating to see a film released only a generation after the Civil Rights Movement talk about the time as if it was yesterday. Because in many ways, it was. It was hard for me to look back at the footage as a young woman in the 2020s, because while a lot of people like to look back on that era as something from long ago, many of the racists hurling slurs at the sit-in protesters are still living today. More importantly, Baldwin and the other participants in the documentary were on the frontlines of the fight for integration, and now look back at this time with a mixture of pride and disappointment. They don’t regret fighting for what happened, but it’s incredibly discouraging to see politicians and local governments deny Black people the economic and racial justice they had risked their security and safety for.

One of the most striking images from this documentary is Baldwin sitting solemnly at the memorial of Martin Luther King Jr, who many people credit as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. However, Baldwin disputes this. While he may have been the most public member, there were other people in the movement that put in the same amount of work and devotion as King did, some of which have been omitted from history. But it’s not just the leaders–it’s the ordinary people who put their lives on the line to make sure future generations wouldn’t have to go through the same pain, humiliation, and trauma that daily racism that was inflicted on them. King should be honored for his work, but acting like without him the March on Washington wouldn’t have happened is not only performative, it’s also destructive. If we claim the movement died with King, then it’s not too far of a stretch to say that antiracism movements died too. Because it clearly hasn’t.

Directors Dick Fontaine & Pat Hurley don’t hesitate to show the darker sides of the Civil Rights Movement, especially when it concerns the younger people who became so disillusioned they almost lost faith. One heartbreaking story concerns the Chaney brothers. The older brother was killed while fighting for racial and economic justice, with the younger brother dealing with his death the hardest. His face at his brother’s funeral will shatter your heart into a million pieces. The younger brother’s testimony about what he’ll do next is even worse. You can’t tell whether he’s grieving, or whether he still wants to keep living. When you lose faith in that the people you love will be protected, resilience feels like a luxury.

Still, I Heard It Through the Grapevine continues to preach hope even when it seems like a fool’s errand. Activists who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, including Baldwin himself, keep speaking to young people about moving forward. One activist starts singing freedom songs to a young crowd, enraptured by both her stories and the emotions in the lyrics. One student asks when things started to die down, and the activist says “It hasn’t. It’s still going on.” It’s a tough thing to say, but there’s also some defiant hope amidst the anger. The activists Baldwin interviews are depending on the next generation to keep hope alive and burning. Even if their goals weren’t met, that doesn’t mean they never will be. As Baldwin says later on, “What goes around comes around.”

What really makes I Heard It Through the Grapevine work is how it leans on disappointment and has it loop back around towards hope. It’s justifiable to be disappointed in how things turned out then, and how things are turning out now. I feel it myself sometimes when I watch the news and see some new political policy prioritize performativity over productivity. But this film doesn’t wallow in disappointment. In social movements, hope isn’t just a strategy. It’s survival. James Baldwin and the directors never let you forget it.

FURTHER THOUGHTS

• I love James Baldwin’s voice. It’s so gravelly and haunted. Which, to be fair, he was.
• It’s so nice to see a documentary made without the intent to ragebait the audience. If you’re mad, it’s because you should be, and it’s important.
• Those kids piping in to ask about dinner is about the most mom thing I’ve ever seen on film.