Barry Jenkins on
Moonlight 2016
Up for eight Academy Awards when Jenkins sat down, weeks before the ceremony. Adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney's play; both men grew up in Liberty City and both their mothers went through the addiction Naomi Harris plays as Paula. Jenkins wrote the first draft in ten days on one block in Brussels and made it with his film-school friends. He deliberately blended trained actors with non-actors so the audience would meet the character rather than a familiar face, and kept the film in the present tense with no flashbacks. He describes coaxing the one scene between Trevante Rhodes and Naomi Harris, who had never met, by having him light her cigarette on camera.
