We no longer live in the age of intellectual giants. Ours is like the age that followed the extinction of dinosaurs, but the age of mice. And if a mind is larger than usual, it is condemned to a contest, not with equals but the dumbest rocks on the planet. Think only of the war of worthless words between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Baldwin, whose masterpieces are found in his collection of essays rather than his novels, an opinion that close friend Lorraine Hansberry also held, spent a large part of life not in America. He first spent, after leaving the US, 13 years in Paris, then a decade in Istanbul, and finally called Southern France home. James Baldwin Abroad are three films that complement his life as an exile, the most fascinating of the three being Sedat Pakay’s James Baldwin: From Another Place (1973). One can't get enough of images of the giant in an ancient city.  by Charles Mudede