“[‘Moonlight’ writer, Tarell Alvin McCraney] and I are Chiron. We are that boy, and when you watch ‘Moonlight,’ you don’t assume a boy who grew up how and where we did would grow up and make a piece of art that wins an Academy Award. You certainly don’t think he will grow up to win Best Picture. I’ve said that a lot, and what I had to admit is that I placed those limitations on myself. I denied myself that dream. Not you, not anyone else. Me. And so to anyone watching this, who sees themselves in us, let this be a symbol, a reflection that leads you to love yourself because doing so may be the difference between dreaming at all and somehow, through the Academy’s grace, realizing dreams you never allowed yourself to have…
That is the speech I would’ve read after winning best picture.”Moonlight director Barry Jenkins speaking at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas
Related: Barry Jenkins is still haunted by last year’s Best Picture Oscars mixup
Related: Beyond Moonlight: 5 Black LGBTQ films that blazed the trail
Blackceo
Still so pissed at the mix up from last year’s Oscar because it took away from the reaction Moonlight should’ve had, and earned. Would’ve been an awesome speech in that moment, but even though he wasn’t able to say it then, it has translated. That is the importance of that film for many young boys and men who don’t see those type of characters represented; characters who look like them and are trying to come to grips with so much in their lives and who don’t feel as though they can dream big.
troyfight
After seeing interviews with him….i wish he would get on screen more, too…like to watch him.
Kangol
After seeing his films Medicine for Melancholy and Moonlight, I’m looking forward to anything Barry Jenkins directs. I wish he had been able to deliver his speech, but Moonlight is a groundbreaking film, and it speaks volume on his behalf and on behalf of everyone involved with making it.
Black Pegasus
I watched Moonlight and did not get what everyone else seemed to have gotten from this film. But I’m glad it opened a door on Black Gay romances. I really want to see more. Perhaps something that displays the underbelly of homophobia and struggle within the communities POC while also delivering on the romantic and lustful side of the equation. Moonlight was vague in my view.