美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Moonlight,' Growing Up Black, Gay And Poor In 1980s Miami（在线收听）

In 'Moonlight,' Growing Up Black, Gay And Poor In 1980s Miami 

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A new film called "Moonlight" shines a light on a tough neighborhood in Miami in the 1980s at the height of the war on drugs. There we meet a young black gay man whose mother is addicted to crack. It is a world well known to both the director of "Moonlight" and the playwright, whose work the movie - opening Friday - is based on. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has the story.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: We first meet Chiron as a 10-year-old boy getting chased by bullies through the streets of Miami's impoverished Liberty City neighborhood. Chiron ends up cowering inside a boarded up crack house. Alex Hibbert plays the shy Chiron.

ALEX HIBBERT: Chiron, he's a not understood boy, like, he's been bullied a lot, abused. And he's trying to find his way. And he's judged a lot about his sexuality and who he likes and what he likes.

DEL BARCO: The 12-year-old actor makes his debut here. He grew up in another Miami neighborhood.

HIBBERT: It's not as bad as Liberty City was, but it's like bad-ish (ph).

DEL BARCO: Hibbert says the movie offers a very authentic view of the hood.

HIBBERT: Yeah. In my community, like, there's people that they care for you even though they do bad stuff like they sell drugs and stuff. But like inside they care and they have a heart.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MOONLIGHT")

MAHERSHALA ALI: (As Juan) I got to get you home, little man. Can't have you just running around these dope holes.

DEL BARCO: In the movie, a local drug dealer named Juan becomes Chiron's mentor. He even teaches him to swim in the ocean. Actor Mahershala Ali says his character, a black Cuban man, relates to Chiron as an outsider.

ALI: The way they connect and the way he guides him is in the manner in which a father does. And he's able to impart a certain degree of knowledge or at least try to unlock Chiron in some of the things that he's dealing with.

DEL BARCO: Juan is also responsible for supplying the very drugs that Chiron's mother uses. Chiron witnesses her descent from a responsible nurse to a crack addict begging for money.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MOONLIGHT")

NAOMIE HARRIS: (As Paula) I'm your blood, remember? Now, I ain't feeling good. I need something to help me out. Come on, baby.

HARRIS: It's left to drug-dealing Juan and his girlfriend Teresa to help Chiron navigate growing up. Singer Janelle Monae plays Teresa, who becomes Chiron's surrogate mother.

JANELLE MONAE: With the world constantly chattering in his head about who he should be and who he should not be, I'm the one person who is mentoring him and listening to him alongside Mahershala's character as well. I don't judge him and I'm there for him and I'm allowing him the space to just be.

DEL BARCO: The film is told in three acts, with different actors playing Chiron at different stages of his life. In the first act, he's a child. In act two, in high school. Act three, he's an adult. And as an adult, Chiron reconnects with Kevin, his first love.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MOONLIGHT")

ANDRE HOLLAND: (As Kevin) Who is you, Chiron?

TREVONTE RHODES: (As Chiron) I'm me, man. I ain't trying to be nothing else.

HOLLAND: (As Kevin) Oh, OK. So you hard now?

RHODES: (As Chiron) No, I ain't say that.

HOLLAND: (As Kevin) Well, then what?

DEL BARCO: The adult Kevin is played by actor Andre Holland.

HOLLAND: There's often this idea of boys don't cry and, you know, toughen up, man up. And at the same time, well, don't be too angry or too aggressive because that has serious ramifications as we continue to see.

DEL BARCO: It's a fine line that Holland says black men in particular have had to negotiate. He says the characters in "Moonlight" are learning what it means to be men.

HOLLAND: They also are trying to figure out what their sexuality is. And I think it's really remarkable that these two men have found a way to be open and vulnerable and intimate with one another, not just sexual but truly intimate.

HOLLAND: Playwright Tarell McCraney and director Barry Jenkins say they also wanted the story to be an intimate portrayal of the place where they both grew up in the 1980s - Liberty City.

TARELL MCCRANEY: I mean, the sun would be setting and there would be this gorgeous blush in the air. You could smell mango down the street, down 62nd Street, I mean, it...

BARRY JENKINS: All the time.

MCCRANEY: ...All the time.

DEL BARCO: They went to the same elementary school, but they didn't meet up until a few years ago when Jenkins first read McCraney's play "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue." It's based on the playwright's childhood.

MCCRANEY: I remember some of the worst days of my life were also some of the most beautiful naturally. The poinsettia would be in full bloom and falling on your head, so you'd see these yellow flowers everywhere. But, you know, I had just gotten either beaten up on a corner or saw somebody get shot.

DEL BARCO: Director Barry Jenkins had a very different experience in that same neighborhood. He was not gay and he played football. But he and McCraney have a shared history - both of their mothers were addicted to crack.

MCCRANEY: I remember being my mom's buddy.

JENKINS: Like partners. Like we are a team.

MCCRANEY: Yeah. We were homies, you know what I mean?

JENKINS: We were in it together. And then at some point we weren't.

DEL BARCO: The playwright's mother died of AIDS, while the director's mother is in recovery. Neither knew their fathers. Barry Jenkins says he was struck by the way in which the men in the story interact.

JENKINS: Just the gentleness and the kindness of the character Juan and knowing that he was based on something in reality.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MOONLIGHT")

ALI: (As Juan) Let me tell you something, man. There are black people everywhere. Remember that, OK? No place you can go in the world ain't got no black people. We was the first on this planet.

MCCRANEY: And when I jogged my memory and I thought back on growing up in the village, there were these men who would every now and then just go out of their way to be, like, no, no, no, don't do that, you know, leave that guy alone or this or that. You know, the men give each other dap, you know. And it's something very, very common in the black community. And I hadn't really seen it, you know, sort of done in a movie or in a TV show - carrying the warmth that I think it carries for these characters in this film.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MOONLIGHT")

ALI: (As Juan) At some point you've got to decide for yourself who you're going to be. Can't let nobody make that decision for you.

DEL BARCO: Director Barry Jenkins says he also wanted to give a realistic feel and language to his film. As a result, it looks and sounds like Liberty City in the 1980s.

JENKINS: That's because, mama, it is real people talking. You know, there is no code switching in this film. Miami English is different than Georgia English, different than New York English. And I remember the first time we showed - I showed the film to my agent. He was like, you might need subtitles for that opening scene.

MCCRANEY: (Laughter).

JENKINS: And I was like, no, bro, that's just Miami. That accent is thick and musical. Instantly your ear - like if you're watching Shakespeare - it takes you a minute to attune to it, to get involved. And that's good. It's like, wouldn't you like to come visit these wonderful people?

MCCRANEY: (Laughter).

JENKINS: But you go, I want to talk to these people for a second. Yes, this guy's a drug dealer. I know what he does. But let me into his world for a moment.

DEL BARCO: McCraney and Jenkins are hoping that even after the credits roll, the moonlight lingers on these characters.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MOONLIGHT")

RHODES: (As Chiron) What did you expect?

DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.