Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Sometimes, how you ingest this idea of masculinity as projected onto you by the world could be the difference of life and death.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Making films. It gave me a voice. Legitimately saved me.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

I think it's really important to remind, reinforce people that their lives have value, you know? That their lives have worth.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

As a writer, a blank page will humble the hell out of you. It always does, and it always will.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

'Moonlight' changed me. To see people so moved by this movie inspires me to find something else to offer. And maybe the next one touches only five people or maybe just one person. To me, you know, that would still be worth it.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Until 'Moonlight,' I had never seen one black man cook for another on screen. But I wanted the characters to be free of 'groundbreaking' or 'never before.' We were ascribed those things. They weren't the point.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

'Moonlight' is a story that hasn't been told. Whether placed as queer black cinema or urban male cinema, the lack of coming-of-age films featuring people like Chiron and set in places like inner-city Miami is pronounced and unfortunate.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

It used to be that watching a film was a very special occasion, the same way flying was. Before, if you took a flight from New York to L.A., most of the windows would be open. Now, we get on planes and we just close them because we're so used to what it feels like. I think the same thing has happened with cinema.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

We are carrying these images out into the world, and we can't control how people contextualize those images no matter how virtuous our aspirations and our intentions are.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Film is not an amazing medium to relay interiority. I think literature is much better for that.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Cinema is a little over 100 years old, and a lot of what we do is built around film emulsion. Those things were calibrated for white skin. We've always placed powder on skin to dull the light. But my memory of growing up in Miami is this moist, beautiful black skin.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

As a filmmaker, I really want to utilize the tools to carry the voice - my voice, and the voice of the characters.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

If you try to create something that everybody can relate to, you're gonna make something that nobody can relate to.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

I'm always about, 'What is the most productive version of what I'm putting into the world?' Something that can be engaged by all folks. I don't have to change everyone.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

I think everybody can identify, you know, with this sort of struggle to decide for yourself who you are, you know, and what your place in life is.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

My first job was cutting grass. In Miami, this grass grows everywhere. You just get the lawn mower out, walk down the neighborhood, cut grass.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

I'm very much a person of nurture over nature. When the world is not nurturing, it can really change a man.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

Filmmaking is a very privileged art form. It costs a lot of money to make these things.

Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins

I just came back from my hometown, making a movie about a kid who grew up just like me, and it was financed by white people in New York. Personally, I can't be angry. In my personal experience, the support was there.