In-person: Live reading of an excerpt from The Devil Finds Work (1976) by actor LisaGay Hamilton following the screening.

This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series The Devil Finds Work: James Baldwin’s Cinema of the Mind.

Shot over three days in May 1970, this short documentary is a luminous portrait directed by Sedat Pakay, Turkish photographer and friend of Baldwin. Intimate and meditative, the film captures Baldwin in rare moments of ease and introspection as he moves through the vibrant, layered cityscape of Istanbul. The film “captures the profound paradox of Baldwin’s transatlantic vantage point,” writes scholar Magdalena Zaborowska, “how he both belongs and remains an outsider.” 

DCP, b&w, 12 min. Director: Sedat Pakay. With: James Baldwin.

Drawn from recently restored outtakes over 50 years after James Baldwin: From Another Place was originally shot in Istanbul, the film reveals fresh dimensions of Baldwin and of Sedat Pakay as a filmmaker. 

DCP, b&w, 10 min. Director: Sedat Pakay (outtakes edited by Brian Meacham). With: James Baldwin. Restored by the Yale Film Archive.

​At the peak of her stardom, Bette Davis played Stanley Timberlake, a destructive sister in a Virginia family — one of several roles showcasing her flair for morally complex women. James Baldwin wrote Davis was “always on the edge of a great understanding,” seen here opposite Ernest Anderson’s dignified performance. Hattie McDaniel lends a quiet, commanding presence at a pivotal moment in her constrained yet trailblazing career. The film stood out for its rare, pointed critique of racial injustice. 

16mm, b&w, 97 min. Director: John Huston. Screenwriter: Howard Koch. With: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Dennis Morgan, Ernest Anderson, Hattie McDaniel.