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Romancier et poète né en Jamaïque, Claude McKay a parcouru le monde de l’entre-deux-guerres en vagabond visionnaire, poète insoumis et pionnier de la conscience noire. Des milieux littéraires new-yorkais à l'intelligentsia parisienne, des cercles du pouvoir bolchéviques aux bas-fonds du port de Marseille, il a tissé des liens avec certains des plus grands noms de son époque, de Charlie Chaplin à W.E.B Du Bois, en passant par Trotsky ou Fitzgerald, tout en fraternisant avec les marins et trimardeurs de toutes les diasporas noires.
Nourri par ses rencontres et ses expériences sur plusieurs continents, il a laissé une œuvre vibrante (poésie, romans et essais) portée par une philosophie radicale et visionnaire, qui a inspiré la Renaissance de Harlem aussi bien qu'Aimé Césaire et les penseurs de la Négritude. Son poème cri, If We Must Die, écrit il y a un siècle contre les lynchages, résonne encore aujourd’hui avec la même urgence que les slogans de Black Lives Matter.
Le film retrace la vie exceptionnelle de cette figure clé de la littérature africaine-américaine à la croisée des aspirations artistiques et politiques les plus importantes du début du XXe siècle.
Porté par la voix de Gaël Faye qui nous fait entendre la parole vibrante de Claude McKay, le film nous fait redécouvrir quelques-unes de ses plus grandes œuvres trop longtemps éclipsées : Banjo, Romance à Marseille, Un sacré bout de chemin… et nous offre, grâce à des archives inédites, une odyssée à travers l’histoire du début du XXe siècle.
Réalisé par : Matthieu Verdeil
Nourri par ses rencontres et ses expériences sur plusieurs continents, il a laissé une œuvre vibrante (poésie, romans et essais) portée par une philosophie radicale et visionnaire, qui a inspiré la Renaissance de Harlem aussi bien qu'Aimé Césaire et les penseurs de la Négritude. Son poème cri, If We Must Die, écrit il y a un siècle contre les lynchages, résonne encore aujourd’hui avec la même urgence que les slogans de Black Lives Matter.
Le film retrace la vie exceptionnelle de cette figure clé de la littérature africaine-américaine à la croisée des aspirations artistiques et politiques les plus importantes du début du XXe siècle.
Porté par la voix de Gaël Faye qui nous fait entendre la parole vibrante de Claude McKay, le film nous fait redécouvrir quelques-unes de ses plus grandes œuvres trop longtemps éclipsées : Banjo, Romance à Marseille, Un sacré bout de chemin… et nous offre, grâce à des archives inédites, une odyssée à travers l’histoire du début du XXe siècle.
Réalisé par : Matthieu Verdeil
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00:22If we must die, let it not be like pigs hunted down and herded into a shameful enclosure.
00:30Meanwhile, around us, rabid dogs bark and mock our sad fate.
00:37If we must die, we will die nobly, so that our precious blood is not spilled into wine.
00:44Then even the monsters we defy will be forced to honor us in death.
00:51O my brothers, we must confront the common enemy.
00:54Even though we are inferior in shadow, let us show our bravery.
00:58For the thousand blows they have received, let us return a fatal blow.
01:02No matter if the open grave lies before us, as men, we will face the murderous pack.
01:09With his back against the wall, dying, but giving as good as he got.
01:26This voice is that of Claude Mackay, when he wrote this sonnet more than a century ago.
01:32He is just a lowly employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
01:36This poem, a gunshot, will make him an idol.
01:42Arlem will exhaust the breath of its renaissance.
01:45And he, the son of a Jamaican peasant, would become a friend of artists and the darling of socialites.
01:52But he prefers the undocumented migrants of the slums, the criminals and the vagrants of all the oceans.
01:59Claude Mackay is an unclassifiable revolutionary, an eternal vagabond, a nonconformist who explores all margins.
02:08He does not belong to any movement; he is a movement unto himself.
02:13He traveled extensively for 20 years, from Kingston to Arlem, from Moscow to Marseille, from Paris to Tangier.
02:20He would turn this adventurous life into a work of art, poems, and novels.
02:26A revelation for loving Césaire, and a source of inspiration for emancipation movements after him.
02:32Too subversive, too marginal, history has gradually forgotten it.
02:37It is time for his voice to resonate again.
02:49I have nothing to give you but my songs.
02:52All my life, I have been a wandering troubadour, nourishing myself mainly on the poetry of existence.
02:59And all I offer you here is the poetic essence of my experience.
03:17Claude Mackay is 18 years old.
03:19On the train taking him to Kingston, the capital of Jamaica,
03:22He watches the countryside where he grew up go by.
03:26A descendant of African slaves, his father managed to become a prosperous farmer.
03:31His older brother, Uteo, is a schoolteacher.
03:34He instilled in him a love of reading and writing.
03:38Thanks to him, he devoured Shakespeare and all the great classics.
03:41but also Spinoza, Goethe, Verlaine or even Oscar Wilde.
03:46But his happy youth surrounded by books is over.
03:50He now has to earn a living, and for the moment, he has only found a job as a police officer.
03:56Let me admit it right away.
03:57I didn't have what it takes to be a good policeman.
04:00Because I am made in such a way that imagination prevails over moderation.
04:04And I have the misfortune of feeling a completely misplaced sympathy for the wrongdoers.
04:10It is not in my temperament to conform to customs that do not suit me.
04:14And I had a particular sensitivity,
04:16which made certain forms of discipline unpleasant,
04:19as well as a fierce hatred of injustice.
04:25The Jamaican people, composed of former slaves, have lived under the yoke of British colonists since the 17th century.
04:33Kingston, home to a large white population,
04:37Claude faces racism.
04:40Rebellion was in my heart,
04:42and it was fueled by the inevitable friction of daily life.
04:47To ease my feelings, I wrote poems.
04:51During my adolescence, I had met Mr. Jekyll,
04:55an English gentleman who became my mentor,
04:57and who encouraged me to write verses in the Black dialect.
05:03Thanks to her support, he became the first writer to publish poetry in Jamaican patois.
05:09Two collections entitled "Chanson de la Jamaïque" and "La balade du gendarme",
05:14which already evoke his favorite themes.
05:16The suffering of the working class, racism, homosexuality,
05:21but also love for his native island.
05:46This initial success enabled Claude to obtain a scholarship.
05:49and new horizons open up to him.
05:52He then embarked for the United States, with the ambition of demonstrating his talent there.
05:59The nomadic spirit, that demon of certain poets, had taken hold of me.
06:04I had a desire to travel the world and discover its meaning.
06:10He doesn't know it yet, but he will never set foot on his native soil again.
06:26Mackey was 23 years old when he moved to Alabama to study agriculture.
06:36But it is the violence of racial segregation that he discovers.
06:40It's a real shock.
06:43I had heard about prejudice in America,
06:46but I never imagined they were so intensely bitter.
06:50My first reaction was horrified.
06:53My mind rebelled against this vile cruelty.
06:59I quickly found myself hating in return.
07:03But this feeling could not last, because to hate is to be unhappy.
07:12Like millions of Black people in the South, Mackey decided to flee to the North.
07:17This is the beginning of what will be called the Great Migration.
07:38In 1914, they settled in New York,
07:42where they take place in the black community of Harlem.
08:06I wanted to produce something new.
08:11Something that captures the spirit and accent of America.
08:17Against his violence that consumed my black body,
08:20I was going to raise my voice in order to turn my revolt into an anthem.
08:26That's how I became a vagabond,
08:28but a vagabond who had a purpose.
08:30I was determined to express myself through writing.
08:35To survive, I was forced to work.
08:39So I was looking for an easy craft activity,
08:43which leaves me free to use my brain.
08:46Doormen, heating attendants, waiters, bar boys, domestic staff.
08:55My free time was divided between my daily experiences
08:59and my attempts at writing.
09:06Claude McKay is finally hired as a waiter
09:09in the dining cars of the New York & Philadelphia Express.
09:13Whenever he has the time, he writes.
09:16One day, in the middle of my shift, I was overcome by an extraordinary lyrical feeling.
09:22And the words produced an uncontrollable buzzing in my head.
09:26I rushed to the toilet and hurried to write the text on a piece of paper.
09:35An old girlfriend from Jamaica joins him in New York.
09:39We got married, but my wife grew tired of that life after six months.
09:43and she returned to Jamaica.
09:46Claude is unaware, but she is pregnant.
09:49Upon returning to her country, she gave birth to a daughter.
09:52His only child, whom he will never meet.
10:01The First World War has just ended.
10:04Tens of thousands of Black American soldiers are returning from the front
10:08with a newfound conviction.
10:10After having participated in the war in Europe,
10:13They deserve, now more than ever, an equal place with white people in their own country.
10:18In New York, two prominent figures embody these demands.
10:22with very different visions
10:24each of which, in their own way, would profoundly inspire Claude Mackey.
10:32First, there is his fellow Jamaican, Marcus Garvey.
10:37He is the great leader of the Universal Black Union.
10:39and the promoter of the movement for a return to Africa.
10:44His newspaper, The Negro World, spread his ideas across all continents.
10:51Garvey's movement was incredibly successful.
10:55He had millions of followers.
11:06Black people from all parts of the world,
11:08oppressed by white capitalists,
11:10They hailed him as a star of hope,
11:12the ultimate solution to their problem.
11:15He was a veritable black Moses.
11:29Unlike Marcus Garvey,
11:31who advocates separatism,
11:33Dr. Dubois and the National Association
11:35for the promotion of people of color
11:37advocates for the assimilation of Black Americans.
11:42His book,
11:43The souls of the black people,
11:45it felt like an earthquake to me
11:47and I place its author on a pedestal
11:50because from this first reading,
11:52I experienced something like an epiphany.
11:55This work contains a prophetic phrase.
11:59The problem of the 20th century
12:01will be that of the Color Line.
12:09This color separation line
12:11takes shape before his eyes
12:12since his arrival on American soil.
12:15Black people on one side,
12:18the whites on the other side.
12:26In the summer of 1919,
12:28The situation is explosive.
12:37The new place claimed by Black people
12:39provokes the anger of white supremacists.
12:43Racial riots break out.
12:48Hundreds of Black people
12:49are being massacred throughout the country.
12:54This bloody episode is called
12:55the Red Summer.
13:05Our black press was full of morbid details
13:08on the clashes between Blacks and Whites.
13:11Deadly shootings
13:13and the hangings.
13:16We,
13:17Black railway workers,
13:19We were worried.
13:20We stayed together.
13:23Some of them were armed,
13:24because you never knew what might happen.
13:29That's when the stunned
13:30"If we must die"
13:32it came out of me like a gunshot.
13:43He submits his poem
13:44at the Liberator,
13:46a radical left-wing magazine
13:48who decides immediately
13:49to publish it.
13:51Its editor-in-chief
13:52His name is Max Eastman.
13:54In him,
13:55Mackay has found his greatest supporter.
13:58Claude Mackay
13:59is America's greatest revolutionary poet.
14:02He is in the front row
14:04of the battle for human freedom.
14:06His poem
14:07is a vibrant call
14:08to the oppressed throughout the world,
14:11regardless of their race
14:12or their color.
14:15This poem has been reprinted
14:17many times.
14:18It was recited in the clubs,
14:20schools
14:21and the black meetings.
14:23He made his way through
14:24even to the flesh of black churches.
14:27Pastors have used it
14:28as a conclusion to their oath
14:30and the faithful responded
14:31"Amen."
14:33Thanks to this sonnet,
14:34the black people unanimous
14:36He consecrated me a poet.
14:43But this burgeoning glory
14:45that's not enough for him.
14:47Mackay wants to continue on his path.
14:49discover what's happening
14:50on the other side of the ocean,
14:52see with his own eyes
14:53the old continent shaken
14:55by the Great War,
14:56a world in upheaval.
15:11He doesn't like London.
15:13nor its climate,
15:14nor the fumes from the factories,
15:16nor racism
15:17that he must face
15:18to find accommodation
15:19or access the libraries.
15:24The English people
15:25was for me too
15:26glacial as its fog.
15:29But London was still
15:31an extraordinary political catalyst.
15:35The most brilliant tenors
15:36of the British labour movement
15:38and the far left
15:39came to speak
15:39at the International Club
15:41and I attended most of
15:42from their conferences.
15:47Socialists, communists,
15:49anarchists,
15:50trade union activists,
15:51crowd haranguers.
15:53Their interactions stimulated me,
15:54were expanding,
15:55broadened my understanding
15:56of the company
15:57and I immersed myself
15:58in the reading of Karl Marx.
16:03Some thought
16:04that Marx was the true prophet
16:05of a new social order.
16:07What if he was right?
16:13One thing seemed obvious to me,
16:15the world was entering a phase
16:16profound social changes
16:18and I was excited
16:19by the possibilities
16:20which were opening.
16:23In this atmosphere
16:25political unrest,
16:26Claude Mackey has an encounter
16:27decisive.
16:28Sylvia Pankhurst,
16:30radical activist,
16:31anti-colonialist and feminist.
16:33Close to Lenin,
16:35she is the enfant terrible
16:35of the suffragette movement
16:37led by his mother and sister.
16:40His gaze was ardent.
16:42a bit of a fanatic, even.
16:44with a hint of cunning.
16:46She told me that she wished
16:48that I work for his newspaper,
16:49the Worker's Dreadnought.
16:52I didn't let it go
16:54this opportunity to indulge myself
16:55to a bit of radical journalism.
17:03While he works with her
17:04for almost a year,
17:06Sylvia Pankhurst is arrested,
17:07accused of attempting
17:09of subversion
17:09armed forces
17:10of His Majesty.
17:12With his politically engaged writings,
17:14Mackey is suspected
17:15in turn.
17:17One evening,
17:18the secretary
17:19of the International Club
17:21showed me an anonymous letter
17:22who accused me
17:23to be a spy.
17:24I assure you
17:25that I felt nauseous
17:26and I was taken
17:28of a mad desire
17:28to leave as soon as possible
17:29this empire.
17:36Disgusted,
17:36penniless,
17:38Mackey is forced
17:39to ask his friends
17:40to pay for his ticket
17:41return.
17:52The impression of filth
17:53left by the crossing
17:54of the Atlantic
17:55in bridge class
17:55was swept away
17:56by the marvelous immensity
17:58with its clean lines,
17:59vertical,
18:00defying the sky,
18:02glorifying the vastness
18:03of space.
18:06Finally,
18:07the boat was moored
18:09and I went down
18:09on the platform.
18:14The elevated metro
18:16sent me
18:16in one go
18:16all the way to Harlem.
18:22What precious happiness
18:23to feel again
18:24black among blacks,
18:26that he was good
18:27to get lost again
18:27in the shadows of Harlem.
18:34Maxis Mann proposed to me
18:35to become assistant editor
18:36of the Liberator.
18:46I was attending at the time
18:47all the activists
18:48of the radical left,
18:49as well as the elite
18:50Black thinkers.
18:58A day,
18:59Max has arrived
19:00in the company
19:00by Charlie Chaplin.
19:02I was very happy
19:03to learn
19:03that great little man
19:05had liked my poems.
19:10I met
19:11Claude Mackey,
19:11the black poet.
19:12He is very handsome.
19:13He is Jamaican
19:15purebred.
19:15I understand easily
19:16why is it described
19:17of an African prince.
19:18He is a true aristocrat
19:20with sensitivity
19:21of a poet
19:22and humor
19:23from a philosopher.
19:27I may have had
19:28more white friends
19:29So many colors.
19:30Neither the color
19:31of their skin,
19:31nor that of their money,
19:33nor that of their class
19:34have never meant
19:35Not much for me.
19:37It's more
19:38the color of their spirit,
19:39the heat
19:40and the depth
19:41their sensitivity
19:42and their affection
19:43who mattered.
19:51In 1922,
19:53the Liberator team
19:54campaign for liberation
19:55of the communist activist
19:57Charles Ashley.
19:59Charles is a poet,
20:00like Claude.
20:02And he claims
20:03his homosexuality.
20:05Shortly after its release
20:06of prison
20:07a passionate relationship
20:08a bond forms between the two men,
20:10punctuated by separation
20:11then a reunion.
20:14The paths of lovers
20:15will cross paths again
20:16in Russia,
20:16in Berlin
20:17and on the French Riviera.
20:27This bohemian period
20:28It was idyllic.
20:30My friends invited me
20:31at receptions.
20:32They offered me
20:33theater tickets
20:34and in concert.
20:41I was taken to
20:42some
20:42rare gin boxes
20:43of Greenwich Village
20:44which were not reached
20:45through phobia
20:46People of color.
20:47And I gave them back
20:48the same
20:49by inviting
20:50some of them
20:51in the cabarets
20:51and the hot evenings
20:52of Harlem.
20:58When you had
20:59Enough of this nonsense!
21:00of 7th Avenue,
21:01you were going down to the Congo
21:03and you threw yourselves
21:04freely in debauchery
21:05among the persistent odors
21:07kitchen
21:07and the warm odors
21:08natives of Harlem.
21:09"You were spending the night
21:11to zigzag and to romp around.
21:13This is what you were doing
21:14like a good black child
21:16who seeks joy
21:17in New York.
21:21Harlem then becomes
21:22the world capital
21:23Black cultures.
21:24The point of convergence
21:26of the most brilliant
21:26intellectuals and artists
21:28of all disciplines.
21:32This cultural life
21:33bubbling,
21:34It's a wind of emancipation.
21:35who gets up,
21:36carried away by the rhythms
21:37wild jazz.
21:41He proclaims himself
21:43the New Negroes
21:43and names this revolution
21:45the Harlem Renaissance.
21:53Within the black intelligentsia
21:55there was an interesting group
21:57of storytellers
21:58of poets and painters.
21:59I was the oldest of them.
22:01They considered me
22:02as a precursor.
22:07Langston Hughes
22:08and Zora Neillorston
22:09are the leading figures
22:11of this new literature.
22:13The artists are taking hold
22:15from their African roots
22:16to invent
22:17an avant-garde aesthetic.
22:19Aaron Douglas,
22:20the most famous of them,
22:22will create the covers
22:23of all of McKay's novels.
22:31This cultural statement
22:33and politics
22:34is a glimmer of hope
22:35for African Americans.
22:37But it doesn't erase
22:38to segregation.
22:40McKay actually
22:41the painful experience
22:42A day
22:42that he is refused
22:43the entrance to a theatre.
22:46I had come as a drama critic,
22:49theatre enthusiast
22:50and a free spirit.
22:51But that didn't matter.
22:53The important fact
22:54that I suddenly took
22:55right in the face
22:56That was my color.
22:58I was a black man
23:00and the one who came
23:01to get slapped,
23:02It was him.
23:05How to find your place
23:06in this racist America?
23:10I had become a confirmed vagabond,
23:13totally unfit
23:14to domestic life.
23:16I wanted to remain free
23:17to come and go
23:18and I felt carried
23:19to get back on the road.
23:21Russia was calling me.
23:36A major upheaval
23:38and a magnificent experience.
23:45What could I possibly understand from that?
23:47What lessons can be learned from this?
23:48For my life and my work?
23:53We need to go and see,
23:54I was told.
24:01Subtitling by Radio-Canada
24:26Following the 1917 revolution,
24:29the communist international
24:30meets annually in Moscow.
24:33In 1922,
24:35Lenin put the black question
24:37on the agenda
24:37of the fourth congress.
24:42The Communist International,
24:44which is not only
24:45the workers' organization
24:46white people from Europe and America,
24:48but also that of the peoples
24:49of oppressed colors
24:50from all over the world
24:51considers it his duty
24:53to encourage and help
24:54the international organization
24:56of the black people.
24:58McKay is not an official guest.
25:00But since he's here,
25:02he is offered
25:02to speak
25:03as a poet.
25:04The success was immediate.
25:06The public loves it.
25:09Its dark color fascinates the Russians.
25:11much more so than Otto Wisswood's,
25:13the official black representative
25:14of the American Communist Party
25:16a mixed-race person with lighter skin.
25:25Every time I appeared
25:26in the street,
25:27people greeted me
25:28enthusiastically.
25:33A spontaneous outbreak
25:34of popular sentiment.
25:37I had become a sort of
25:38black icon.
25:41Never in my life,
25:42I have never felt so proud
25:44of being African and black.
25:53McKay wants to discuss
25:54of the black question
25:55with a Bolshevik leader.
25:57He is the leader of the Red Army
25:59in person who receives it.
26:04Trotsky, seated at his desk,
26:06wore a commander's uniform
26:07and looked very elegant,
26:09kind and courteous.
26:11He asked me a few questions
26:13direct and precise
26:14about Black Americans,
26:15their organization,
26:17their political situation
26:18and their social aspirations.
26:20I answered as best I could,
26:22based on my knowledge
26:24and my information.
26:27Trotsky asks McKay
26:29to put his ideas into writing.
26:31He adds his commentary.
26:33The text appears in one
26:35from Pravda, February 15, 1923.
26:43Dear McKay comrades,
26:44we need a small number
26:46advanced Blacks,
26:48young people,
26:49altruists,
26:49very interested
26:51to raise the material level
26:53and the morale of the black masses
26:54and to link them to fate
26:56of the international working class.
26:58The education of black propagandists
27:01is the revolutionary task
27:03the most urgent
27:04and the most important
27:05at present.
27:06With communist greetings,
27:08Leon Trotsky.
27:19Leon Trotsky invites McKay
27:21to visit the training camps
27:23Soviet forces
27:24in Moscow and Petrograd.
27:30The soldiers gave me a warm welcome.
27:31for almost a month.
27:33I was introduced
27:34to officers
27:35of the army,
27:36of the air force and the navy.
27:40I was going through a military review
27:41in receptions and bankers.
27:45This period
27:46is obviously being closely monitored
27:48by the Bureau of Investigation,
27:50the ancestor of the American FBI
27:52including spies
27:53closely follow
27:53the communist agitators.
27:56McKay is logically
27:57in the line of fire
27:58by Edgar Hoover.
28:04He is even suspected
28:05to have a code name
28:07for his alleged secret activities.
28:09Sacha or Saëcha,
28:11according to reports.
28:15Claude McKay,
28:16an African American,
28:17was specially sent
28:19by the Soviet government
28:20to spread propaganda
28:21among Black North Americans.
28:24In an open letter,
28:25Trotsky published
28:26the official instructions
28:27data to McKay
28:29for the organization
28:29of the black race
28:30in the United States
28:31against their so-called
28:33American oppressors.
28:41The poet smells good
28:42that the Bolshevik leaders
28:43want to use his aura
28:44and its image
28:45for political purposes.
28:49Without his knowledge,
28:50he even finds himself
28:51on this poster
28:52of the Communist Party.
28:54I did not belong to any party
28:56and I had no reason
28:58to feel indebted
28:59of any obligation
29:00vis-à-vis the communists.
29:04I had already travelled a lot
29:06From triumph to triumph.
29:08Should I go further?
29:09at the risk of disillusionment
29:10or make my exit
29:12at the height of his glory
29:13taking the precious treasure with them
29:15of my golden memories?
29:17It seemed more logical to me
29:18to leave now.
29:37In Paris,
29:38I found it fascinating
29:39to mingle with the expatriates
29:40of any nationality.
29:42Left-hand jeans,
29:43aesthetes,
29:44painters and writers,
29:46pseudo-artists,
29:47bohemians and tourists
29:48mingled
29:49with cordial tolerance.
29:53I had the impression
29:54to take a vacation
29:55after the atmosphere
29:56of the new Russia
29:57with its propaganda
29:59at high pressure.
30:07In those wild years,
30:09Black people are in fashion.
30:15They appeal to the public
30:16and inspire artists.
30:21We're even talking about
30:22of negrophilia,
30:23a paradoxical fascination
30:25for exotic crops
30:26and so-called primitives.
30:30I went around
30:31cabarets
30:32of Montmartre
30:32and Montparnasse.
30:33I was going to dance a little
30:34at the Negro ball
30:35of Blomé Street.
30:37The Parisian press
30:39put away my dock
30:40among the Montparnasse,
30:42this community
30:42bohemian artists
30:43who found refuge
30:44in Montparnasse.
30:47She's even having fun
30:48of his nocturnal wanderings
30:49with friends.
31:01The cream of Harlem
31:02was then in Paris
31:05and I found
31:06the most eminent poets
31:07and writers
31:08of the Black Renaissance.
31:11For intellectuals
31:12African Americans
31:13but also for those
31:14from Africa and the Caribbean,
31:16Paris is the point
31:17rallying point
31:17where it is developed
31:18Black internationalism.
31:26Particularly in the literary salon
31:28the Paulette sisters
31:29and Jeanne Nardal,
31:30from Martinique
31:31to study in Paris.
31:33instigator of Negritude,
31:35she publishes
31:36the review of the black world
31:38who wants to give back
31:39their pride
31:39to black people all over the world.
31:42McKay participates
31:43to these exchanges
31:44and invites
31:45his friends from Harlem.
31:47Thanks to him,
31:48they begin
31:49a fruitful dialogue
31:49transatlantic.
31:54In Paris,
31:55Claude also finds
31:56Louise Bryant,
31:57this American journalist,
32:00political activist
32:00and feminist
32:02will never cease
32:03to encourage him
32:03and to support him
32:04financially.
32:06We liked to talk
32:07of literature.
32:09Louise thought the same as me
32:10that there was no
32:10bourgeois writing
32:12or proletarian.
32:13There was only
32:14the good
32:15and bad literature.
32:21To earn a living,
32:22I had posed naked
32:23in the workshops
32:24painters
32:24and that had put
32:26My health is in danger.
32:28The workshops
32:29were poorly heated
32:30and pneumonia
32:31had confined me to bed.
32:34Since his return
32:35from Russia,
32:36McKay is also suffering
32:37of syphilis.
32:39Shameful disease
32:40sexually transmitted
32:42she dives McKay
32:43in a deep depression
32:44which is in addition
32:46to physical pain.
32:47During his hospitalization,
32:49he expresses his suffering
32:50in his poems.
32:53The illness traps you
32:54in this room,
32:55she'll keep you in bed
32:56painfully.
32:58Even if you leave here,
33:00your flesh will no longer
33:01never young and strong
33:03and never the sorrow
33:04will not give up
33:05your sick face.
33:08Claude McKay
33:08he was then 34 years old
33:09and he is convicted
33:11to follow a treatment
33:12mercury-based
33:13and arsenic.
33:14who, far from helping him,
33:16It will gnaw at him until he dies.
33:21Louise Bryant
33:22sent me to redo
33:23health in the south.
33:25She handed me
33:26a large check
33:27enough to live simply
33:28and work tirelessly
33:30for three months.
33:47wide open,
33:48like a huge fan
33:50splashed with vibrant colors,
33:52Marseille went naked
33:53in the glory of the midday sun,
33:56both attractive
33:57and repulsive,
33:59full of endless magic
34:01boats and men.
34:04Port of all dreams
34:05and of all the sailors' nightmares,
34:08a treat for vagrants
34:09with its prodigious jetty.
34:13And then the port quay,
34:15fascinating,
34:17threatening,
34:17turbulent,
34:19against which it was shattering,
34:20thick, bubbling foam
34:22the froth of life,
34:25magma of passions
34:26and desires.
34:43It was a relief
34:44to go and live in Marseille
34:46among people
34:46with black or brown skin
34:47who came from the United States,
34:49of the Antilles,
34:50North Africa
34:51and West Africa
34:52and were all gathered together
34:54to form a warm and welcoming group.
34:58Marseille has so much
34:59of similarities with Harlem.
35:01Claude feels right at home there.
35:03He will stay there for five years.
35:06His American memories and experiences
35:09resurface
35:09and inspired his first novel.
35:12Back to Harlem.
35:15Louis Bryant wins
35:17the manuscript in New York
35:18and offers it to publishers.
35:21Published in 1927,
35:24the novel becomes
35:24the first bestseller
35:25by a black author
35:27in the United States.
35:30Chocolate Girls
35:32with their red
35:33and their lighthouse
35:34like black flowers.
35:36Dear black people
35:37wrapped
35:38soft clothes
35:38full of colors.
35:40Black breasts
35:41vibrant with love.
35:43Black lips
35:44thick
35:45whose love
35:46calls for a sweet kiss.
35:49The Black Elite
35:50depraved judge
35:51this story
35:52to a jazz soundtrack
35:53of sex,
35:54alcohol
35:54and drugs.
35:55Especially,
35:57Dr. Dubois.
35:59Home to Harlem
36:00by Claude MacKay
36:01It makes me nauseous.
36:03And after the passages
36:04the dirtiest
36:05and obscene,
36:06I definitely want to
36:07to take a bath.
36:09That does not mean
36:10that the book
36:10is completely bad.
36:12MacKay
36:13is too great a poet
36:14so that his writing
36:15or a total failure.
36:19I don't write
36:20for black people
36:21of good society,
36:22nor for the Puritan friends
36:23people of color,
36:24nor for those who hate Black people,
36:26nor for negrophiles.
36:28I write for those
36:29who are capable
36:29to appreciate a story
36:30authentic,
36:31wherever she comes from.
36:35Although written
36:36on the edges
36:36of the Mediterranean,
36:37this book will be considered
36:39as one of the works
36:40majors of the Renaissance
36:41of Harlem.
36:44That's it,
36:44the young poet
36:46Jamaican
36:46has become
36:47a great novelist.
36:48And now,
36:49This is Marseille
36:50who inspires him.
36:53He rents
36:54a small room
36:54humid
36:55and without a window
36:56near the Old Port.
36:59His remuneration
37:00writer
37:01is taking a long time to arrive.
37:02so when he can,
37:03he works
37:04like Docker.
37:11I met
37:12the Corsican
37:13of the Old Port.
37:14He was a tough guy,
37:15with a massive body
37:16bulls
37:16overcome
37:17of a pig's head.
37:20He had
37:20a wine shop
37:21not very far
37:22on Boutry Street,
37:23one of the streets
37:23on board her
37:24the most sordid
37:25of the world.
37:26His gang
37:27protected
37:28a number
37:28of prostitutes
37:29who had their room
37:31of love
37:31in the alleyways.
37:34Claude frequents
37:35a group of friends
37:36united by color
37:37of their skin.
37:38Sailors,
37:39dockworkers,
37:40undocumented immigrants
37:41came from America
37:42and French colonies.
37:48Together,
37:48they drag
37:49in the restricted area,
37:51this high place
37:51of debauchery,
37:52music
37:52and sex
37:53which attracts tourists
37:55and the sailors
37:55from all over the world.
38:00Nothing attracted him
38:01more than black people
38:02of the port.
38:03Nowhere,
38:03they hadn't seen
38:04such a congregation
38:05variegated with blacks.
38:07Black people
38:07who were speaking
38:08civilized languages,
38:09blacks
38:10who were speaking
38:10all African dialects,
38:12black people,
38:13dark-brown, black
38:15black and yellow.
38:17It was as if
38:18all countries of the world
38:19where black people lived
38:20had sent
38:20your representatives
38:21so that they drift
38:22all the way to Marseille.
38:29It was by drawing inspiration from them
38:30that Mackay writes
38:31his new novel,
38:32the story of a musician
38:33vagabond nicknamed Banjo
38:35and his friend Ray,
38:37a Haitian travel writer.
38:40It's hard not to
38:40recognize Mackay
38:41himself
38:42behind this character.
38:45With their terminals
38:46of celestial vagrants,
38:47They live off the spirit of the times.
38:49they beg,
38:49palaver,
38:50get drunk
38:50and play music.
39:00The opening of the African café
39:02by a Senegalese
39:03had rallied
39:04all the happy partygoers
39:05with a dark complexion.
39:11Never black throats
39:12had not swallowed
39:13such a quantity
39:14red wine
39:14and white wine.
39:16And never the blacks
39:17from Marseille
39:17had not thus
39:18piled up and mixed together
39:19for such jazz.
39:24"Shake that thing",
39:26a fashionable blues
39:27in 1925,
39:28becomes the anthem of the book.
39:30At once a festive incantation
39:31and political slogans.
39:33Shake that up!
39:35Because Mackay reminds us,
39:37the blues is also
39:38the expression
39:39suffering
39:39of the black people,
39:40victim of racism
39:41and colonial exploitation.
39:46Barrels, sacks, crates,
39:49transporting from one country
39:50to the other
39:50the primitive harvest
39:52by the hand of man.
39:55Black bodies
39:57dripping with sweat,
39:58ripened under the equatorial sun,
40:01picking under the whip
40:02terror
40:03exotic foods
40:04of the Western world.
40:07Civilization
40:09had gone among
40:09these indigenous peoples
40:11close to the earth.
40:12She had robbed them.
40:13from their original soil,
40:15uprooted,
40:16chained,
40:17deportees,
40:18had transformed them
40:19so that they would exhaust themselves
40:20according to its laws
40:21and yet she was
40:22unable to tolerate them
40:24within its walls.
40:31The vagrants
40:32rot in hell
40:33here on the docks.
40:34The police catch them.
40:36hit them like dogs
40:38and releases them.
40:39She doesn't keep them
40:40in prison
40:40because they would need to be fed.
40:42Almost all
40:43lost their paper
40:44and the consuls
40:45They don't help them.
40:54With humor and exuberance,
40:56Banjo gives audibility
40:57voices and demands
40:59of all the Black diasporas
41:00gathered in this Babel
41:02on the seafront.
41:13Reading Banjo is a shocking experience.
41:15the young Léopold Sédar Senghor
41:17and Aimé Césaire
41:18and inspires their concept
41:20of Negritude.
41:23Claude Maté
41:24and the American mixes
41:26were for them
41:27a revelation.
41:29I met them
41:30Banjo,
41:32very important to us
41:33Of course,
41:34and consciousness
41:35to belong to a culture
41:38and pride
41:39to belong to this culture.
41:41We were made up
41:42a world of our own.
41:43I am Black.
41:44And I will remain a Black man.
41:50Even Dr. Dubois
41:51reconcile
41:52with his handwriting.
41:54Banjo is a kind
41:55international philosophy
41:57of the black race.
41:59He is very inspiring.
42:00He is full of experiences,
42:02alive and of course
42:03very colorful
42:05as is the entire work
42:06by Claude Mackey.
42:07Mackey became
42:08an international black man.
42:17It was hot in Marseille
42:19and it was good
42:20for my health.
42:22I was swimming
42:23right at the end
42:23from the main pier.
42:24Then I discovered
42:25another swim
42:26more pleasant at Estac,
42:28at the point where the canal
42:29opens onto the bay.
42:32I went there every day,
42:33for the rest of the summer,
42:34to float
42:36for hours,
42:37like wearing
42:38in the arms
42:39beneficial sunshine.
42:43Suddenly,
42:44the Mistral wind blew
42:45for three days
42:46And then came autumn.
42:47I hate it
42:49The Mistral wind in Marseille.
42:51Fortunately,
42:52right at that moment,
42:54Max Sisman invited me
42:55to visit him
42:56in Antibes.
43:04The French Riviera
43:06is then the refuge
43:07American writers
43:08of the lost generation.
43:12Mackey takes a room,
43:14near the houses
43:15by Hemingway
43:16and his old friend Max.
43:23One evening,
43:24Claude came to dinner
43:25in our country.
43:27While he was in the process
43:28to do the dishes
43:28with my wife,
43:30Scott Fitzgerald
43:30knocked on the door.
43:33Elena went out
43:34to welcome him
43:36and Claude continued
43:37to do the dishes.
43:41Scott naturally took it
43:42for a black servant.
43:45When I introduced them
43:47to each other,
43:48Scott didn't even try
43:49to hide his surprise.
43:50He simply told him
43:52"I thought you were
43:53the cook.
43:55A mischievous glimmer
43:56shone in the eyes
43:57by Claude.
44:00Some time later,
44:01after reading
44:02"Return to Harlem"
44:04Fitzgerald writes to McKay.
44:06"Dear McKay,
44:07I couldn't tell you
44:08how much I enjoyed it
44:09your book.
44:11Some scenes
44:11seem comparable to me
44:13to Zola
44:13or of the Saint-Clair-Lewis.
44:15In my opinion,
44:16This is one of the two novels
44:17most valuable Americans
44:19of this spring.
44:30To earn a living,
44:32Claude is obliged
44:32to string together odd jobs,
44:34particularly domestic,
44:35among wealthy Americans.
44:38He even ended up as an extra.
44:40in the film "The Magician"
44:41of the American filmmaker
44:42Rex Ingram,
44:44silent film star in Hollywood
44:45who took the reins
44:46Victorine Studios
44:47in Nice.
44:56The plan doesn't last
44:57just five short seconds.
44:59Five seconds.
45:00yet precious,
45:01because these are the only images
45:03by Claude McKay
45:04moving.
45:09McKay also likes to hang out
45:10Toulon,
45:11a sailors' town
45:12where homosexuality
45:13is widespread.
45:14That's where he meets
45:15Lucien,
45:16a sailor
45:17who teaches him
45:18some basics
45:18of French
45:19and becomes her lover.
45:22The following summer,
45:24Claude goes to join him
45:24at his home,
45:25in Brittany.
45:26But upon his arrival,
45:28he learns that his friend
45:29has just been swept away
45:30brutally
45:30through tuberculosis.
45:34Once the initial shock has passed,
45:35McKay decides
45:36to cure his melancholy
45:37by travelling around the region.
45:42The Bretons,
45:43I liked the Bretons more
45:44than all other French people,
45:46They are so pleasant
45:47the countryside
45:48and charming
45:49the towns of Finistère.
45:51How I loved
45:52Douard Nenay
45:53with its fleet
45:54trawlers
45:55to the tall masts
45:55covered with nets,
45:57resembling blue sails
45:58on the blue-grey background
45:59from the sky.
46:02Like words that sprang forth
46:04from the mouth
46:04of an agitator
46:05during a political rally,
46:07the names of many
46:08of these boats
46:09you were being called out
46:10violently.
46:11Lenin,
46:12Jean Jaurès,
46:13Proletarian,
46:15Red flag,
46:16The International,
46:17Revolution,
46:18Moscow.
46:19We had nicknamed
46:20the city
46:21Douard Nenay
46:22The Red one.
46:30He writes the short story
46:31Dinner at Douard Nenay
46:32which evokes the fight
46:33sardine-sized sentences.
46:35These sardine boats
46:36who have just won
46:36one of the strikes
46:37the most famous
46:38of the history of trade unionism
46:39and feminism.
46:41In the red city
46:42we stand together
46:43and their victory
46:44The women are proud
46:45Listen to the clatter of their hooves
46:48Listen to their anger turning blonde.
46:51Listen to the clatter of their hooves
46:53That's the rule for sardine fishermen.
47:00I have always been amazed
47:01by Rimbaud
47:02this flamboyant poet
47:04the perfect image
47:05of the poor vagabond
47:06to a tragic fate.
47:08I kept his photograph
47:09with me
47:10for years.
47:18Claude Maquet
47:19he too
47:20a poet
47:20at the peak of the wind.
47:22He sets off on an adventure
47:24to the African continent
47:25the land of his ancestors.
47:35his journey
47:36starts with Morocco.
47:46I had an initial shock
47:48upon discovering
47:49Gnawa sorcerers.
47:53A Black community
47:55purebred
47:56who practiced
47:57a magic ritual
47:58from West Africa.
48:00they had the behavior
48:02of some peasants
48:03Jamaicans
48:04who indulge
48:05to the celebration
48:05of an orgiastic cult.
48:16After passing
48:17ten years
48:18to travel across Europe
48:19by adopting
48:19its codes
48:20and his manners
48:21Claude Maquet
48:22at 40
48:23past the age of 40
48:23now lives
48:25Moroccan style
48:26his steps
48:27lead them
48:27through
48:28the whole country.
48:30I liked mosaics
48:31Moroccan
48:32where they mingle
48:33civilized life
48:34and primitive life.
48:36For the first time
48:37of my life
48:38I could live
48:39according to my instinct
48:40and my feelings
48:41without thinking
48:43and I felt
48:44singularly delivered
48:46of consciousness
48:46of my color.
48:53A day
48:54it is controlled
48:55by a police officer
48:56who orders him
48:57to accompany him
48:57at the British consulate.
48:59When asked
49:00if he is American
49:01he confesses
49:02that he considers himself
49:03as stateless
49:03a citizen of the world.
49:06He was then suspected
49:07to be an agitator
49:08Communist.
49:10The consul showed me
49:11a circular
49:12of the US department
49:13immigration
49:14dated 1923
49:16saying that I had
49:17left Russia
49:18with a large sum
49:19money
49:19to spread propaganda
49:21in America.
49:23Those British bastards
49:25also work
49:25in the shadows
49:26to keep an eye on me.
49:36Maquet continues his journey
49:38north
49:38and finally posed
49:40his suitcases in Tangier.
49:43He will stay there for 4 years.
49:45This international city
49:46is known
49:47for its freedom of morals
49:48and Maquet knows
49:50that he can frequent there
49:50without judgment
49:51women
49:52and men.
50:02He finishes the scandalous
50:04Romance in Marseille
50:05who cannot find a publisher.
50:08A refusal
50:09which can probably be explained
50:10through audacity
50:11of this true story
50:12of a clandestine
50:13amputated of two legs
50:15in which he mentions
50:16without detour
50:16prostitution
50:17and homosexuality.
50:21He still manages
50:22to publish another novel
50:24and some news
50:25But it was a commercial failure.
50:28Broke and sick,
50:30he survives
50:31thanks to a donation from his friends.
50:33Dear Max,
50:35Maybe you're crossing
50:36You're going through a difficult time too.
50:38But I hope not as much as I do.
50:41I had to sell
50:41my few pieces of furniture
50:42except for one chair
50:44to write.
50:46I sound like I'm complaining
50:47but I am in a terrible state
50:50with pain
50:51on the right side of the neck
50:52which goes down along
50:53of the shoulder blade
50:54and I'm half paralyzed
50:55through rheumatism.
50:58Nobody sent me
50:59a Peigny apart from you.
51:01It's terrible
51:01to ask you more
51:02after everything you've already done
51:05and you must send me
51:06money
51:07in order to be able to take the boat
51:08to return to the United States.
51:11Everything is going wrong for me.
51:12I feel so lost.
51:14I kiss you,
51:16Eliana and you.
51:17Claude.
51:35In 1934,
51:37McKay finally manages
51:39to return to the United States.
51:40He was 45 years old at the time.
51:43But he is completely ruined.
51:45And no one is there to help him.
51:47He finds himself
51:49in a reintegration camp
51:50for homeless alcoholics.
51:54He ekes out a living.
51:55by publishing a few articles
51:56and political essays.
51:59And especially his autobiography
52:01picaresque,
52:01quite a long way
52:03which was published in 1937.
52:15Considered an outdated troublemaker,
52:18McKay can no longer find a publisher
52:19for his latest manuscripts.
52:21And the disease continues to eat away at him.
52:25It is taken in hand
52:26by a Catholic association
52:27who takes in and cares for
52:29the poor and the marginalized.
52:33Marked by their generosity,
52:35Claude is baptized
52:36in 1944.
52:41His latest writings
52:42These are Catholic poems.
52:45Claude McKay's Road
52:47It ended in 1948.
52:49He died of a heart attack
52:51at the age of 58.
52:57There were very few of them.
52:58to accompany him
52:59for his final journey.
53:02But the only person
53:03whom he would have liked to meet
53:04One day was there.
53:06His daughter, Rousse Hope Virtue
53:08who had tried in vain
53:09to see it.
53:11On his grave,
53:12we can read this epitaph
53:14taken from his poem
53:15The Tired Worker.
53:18Peace be with you.
53:19my rebellious heart.
53:27I cry out my misfortune
53:28to the swirling world.
53:30But I am not hopeless.
53:33Respectable institutions
53:35and criminal governments
53:37draw their strength
53:38and their power
53:39racial hatreds,
53:40class distinctions,
53:42social insults
53:44and discrimination
53:45against minorities.
53:48And I know that these forces
53:50are not eternal,
53:51that they can be destroyed
53:54and that they will be.
54:25and I know that these forces
54:25decades
54:25And then we go to the worst.
54:25And I know that
54:25And I know,
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