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AT THE MOVIES - "Moonlight"

AT THE MOVIES -

"In 1980s Miami, the triple crisis of growing up black, gay, and poor" PBS NewsHour 11/4/2016

Excerpt


SUMMARY:  Based on a true story, the new movie “Moonlight” follows Chiron, a boy growing up black, gay and poor in 1980s Miami.  The film documents Chiron's identity struggle in three acts, featuring a different actor for each.  It's a landscape director Barry Jenkins knows well -- he grew up in the same neighborhood around that time.  Jeffrey Brown speaks with Jenkins and screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Editor's Note:  In our segment, Tarell Alvin McCraney was misidentified as the screenwriter.  McCraney created the story.  Barry Jenkins wrote the screenplay in addition to directing the film.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  A new movie opening this weekend is being widely hailed for its nuanced storytelling about sexual identity, race and upbringing.

Jeffrey Brown spoke with the filmmakers of “Moonlight.”

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  It's a life we don't often see portrayed in commercial films, a coming-of-age tale of love and anguish, a movie that's garnered critical acclaim for the story it tells and the beauty and power of its telling.

In “Moonlight,” we watch Chiron growing up in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami as the crack epidemic is taking hold in the 1980s.  He is young, poor, black, and coming to terms with being gay, quietly and painfully wrestling with these identities.

The story is based on the life of Tarell Alvin McCraney, who first wrote it as a play and then the screenplay for the new film.

TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY, Playwright, “Moonlight”:  It's a story that I still feel like I have to tell, but also that I have to explore and to understand.

I mean, it's a story rooted in events in my own life that I'm trying to make sense of and make sense of the world out of.  And I think, for me, I always am interested in trying to get a group of people to have the same conversation.

BARRY JENKINS, Director, “Moonlight”:  So, Tarell and I grew up blocks from one another.





This post first appeared on Mage Soapbox, please read the originial post: here

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AT THE MOVIES - "Moonlight"

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