Moonlight (2016)

One of the most important films of my life.

Every shot is more beautiful than the last. I deeply connect with this story, but I struggle to explain why. It hits something so deep within me. Even if you’re not a queer kid who grew up feeling different, I think we all understand the feeling of being othered. We all understand having to put up walls. Even the most privileged among us have situations where they’ve had to armor themselves.

In the third act, I caught myself thinking what a romantic film this was - and then had to check myself. It’s not quite romantic. It’s deeply tragic. This is a film about a gay child feeling so completely othered that he has to literally bulk up his physical body to protect himself. He has to become hard. And the tragedy is that he had to build that armor in order to survive. That’s the heartbreak underneath everything.

Being queer and made fun of as a kid in school - this film made me feel so much empathy for Chiron. Barry Jenkins sees something true about tenderness and the cost of protecting it. What an incredible breakout.

We did a free outdoor showing of this with Trilingual Cinema, a local crew I volunteer with in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The turnout from across the Twin Cities was incredible. This film still has power.

I will never forget the excitement I felt at the Oscars that year. La La Land announced as the winner by mistake, and then Moonlight revealed as the true Best Picture - the one that was my best picture. Still riding that high to this day.

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