Q&A: ‘Moonlight’ director Barry Jenkins basking in glow of Golden Globes nods

TORONTO – “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins was basking in the glow of Golden Globes acclaim on Monday after receiving screenplay and directing nominations for his powerful coming-of-age tale of a young gay black man struggling with his identity.

The film scored six nods, one shy of overall leader “La La Land.” In addition to dual honours for Jenkins, “Moonlight” received nominations for best dramatic picture, supporting acting honours for Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, and score for Nicholas Britell.

“When I woke up and I turned my phone on … all of these messages started coming through, I assumed it had gone well this morning,” Jenkins said in a phone interview from Los Angeles on Monday.

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association really clearly saw something of themselves in ‘Moonlight.'”

The nominations came one day after “Moonlight” earned wins for both Ali and the acting ensemble at the Critics Choice Awards. The movie has also been showered with best-picture accolades from film critics associations in Toronto, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Jenkins was named best director by the New York Film Critics Circle.

“Moonlight” is based on the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who, like the main character Chiron, grew up gay outside Miami, the son of a crack-addicted mother. The story also hits close to home for Jenkins, who grew up in a rough neighbourhood with a drug-addicted mother.

The heartwrenching, intimate film is divided into three acts, charting Chiron’s evolution through seminal moments from boyhood to his teen years and adulthood as he seeks to come to terms with his awakening sexuality and identity.

The film was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, which marked the first time the entire cast was in attendance for a screening.

“Every now and then, the video will get tweeted of that first Q&A where everybody up on stage is basically in tears,” Jenkins recalled.

“It was beyond emotional — and part of that was the emotion of the room.”

Jenkins spoke with The Canadian Press about the critical acclaim for “Moonlight” and why he believes the story is resonating so strongly with audiences.

CP: “Moonlight” almost seems like the little film that could. It’s done quite well on the festival circuit, what do you make of the critical love that “Moonlight” is receiving?

Jenkins: It shows that the warmth and love that we put into the film — myself, the crew and the cast — that people are responding to that. I think it also shows the ability of cinema to connect people. It’s a movie that’s very civic in its setting and its cast and milieu, yet there are people as far away as Toronto and London and Telluride, Colo., that are seeing themselves in this character and in the film. It’s been very fulfilling and very heartening.

CP: What do you think it is about this story of Chiron in particular that’s connecting with so many people?

Jenkins: I think it’s something to do with the honesty with which we went about making the film. I think the actors are very honest in their portrayals of these characters. And I think Tarrell was very honest in his depictions of his story, of what Chiron went through. I think people respect that, and they open themselves up to it. I think most audience members sit down and they come into this movie with an open heart. And in that opening, the movie is just working itself into people, and people are willingly receiving the energy we put into the film.

CP: It’s so rare that we get to see depictions of the masculinity of black men in the way that we do in “Moonlight.” Can you speak to those relationships depicted onscreen between young black men and older black men?

Jenkins: I think that was a reflection of the life that Tarell McCraney lived. I think it was important for us to depict these things as they happened in a very truthful way. And I think the only thing that’s provocative or new about it is the fact that those kinds of depictions aren’t projected very often. And yet they happen all the time…. There are very many different versions or variations of the expression of black masculinity and also of intimacy between young black men.

CP: I know that you have a very deeply personal connection to this story given your own upbringing. I was wondering now that you’ve had the chance to sit with the film for a while, to see it through the eyes of other people, do you have a new perspective now when you see “Moonlight”?

A: Not a new perspective, and part of that is because I can’t watch the movie very often because it’s too damn painful. But I do think the process of making the film was very therapeutic. It gave me a better understanding of some of the things I’d been feeling about my life and about certain relationships in my life. I can only hope that even without the personal one-to-one experience of making and living the film that audiences are having the same experience as well.

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Note: This interview has been edited and condensed.

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