What is the importance of Paris, France in the film, I Am Not Your Negro?

Baldwin left the United States at age 24, seeking to escape the discrimination of his native country. In Paris, Baldwin found he could finally flourish artistically, and wrote extensively while he was there. As a gay man, Paris was also more conducive to his lifestyle. However, after a while, Baldwin felt he must leave this idealistic existence in order to "pay his dues" back in the United States (13). For Baldwin, Paris represented the freedom to live his life without fear, and to be able to write freely. This, he realized, could only be but a temporary respite from his engagement with civil rights struggles in the United States, but nonetheless this distance proved necessary for him to reflect upon and articulate the heart of America's racial divide and the source of the racial hatred which has plagued American history.