For the first time, PBS affiliate WNET is releasing a film from its archives via Facebook Live. On Friday, February 24, at 8 p.m., the 1963 James Baldwin documentary Take This Hammer will be available to stream on Facebook here. The 45-minute video will remain online for the following week.
Produced by the late poet Richard O. Moore, Take This Hammer follows the famous author and activist as he meets with members of the African-American community in San Francisco in the spring of 1963. The free online screening is a nod to Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which brings to life a project that Baldwin started but never finished — a memoir called Remember This House told through the stories of three monumental black leaders, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers.
Since I Am Not Your Negro features footage from Take This Hammer, WNET decided to make it available for the public in the days leading up to the Oscars. Check it out on Friday, and if you haven’t already seen Peck’s film, get thee to a screening. (Pro tip: Buy tickets ahead of time.)