Oscar winning ‘Moonlight’ shines on Miami’s Liberty City
MIAMI >> Oscar winning film “Moonlight” presents a view of Miami that never shows up in a tourism video. Far from the sun and glamour of South Beach or the artists and hipsters of Wynwood, it shows predominantly black communities, truly known by few outside the people who live there.
And it’s recognizably their Miami, made beautiful and suddenly more hopeful than it might have seemed before.
“The best thing about this movie is they actually went into the projects and shot it, and they let kids from around Liberty City be in it,” said Kamal Ani-Bello, a freshman at Miami Northwestern Senior High School who had a role as an extra in the film. “Usually people make ‘hoods on movie sets, but this actually shows the real thing — and that’s why it won best picture.”
“Moonlight” won the Academy Award Sunday night for best picture, best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay. It was nominated in five additional categories. It follows the life of a young black man as he grows up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood while coming to terms with his own homosexuality.
Director Barry Jenkins “came from the same grounds I came from, from the same city,” said Larry Anderson, a Miami Northwestern junior who also had a role as an extra. Jenkins graduated from the same high school and had roots in a public housing project nicknamed “Pork & Beans” familiar to many students.
“Knowing that he came from the same — not just Miami, but Liberty City, same Pork & Beans, Miami Northwestern and the same programs that I’ve been part of, it tells me I can achieve in the same way as him,” Anderson said.
Jenkins’ wrote the screenplay for “Moonlight” with Tarell Alvin McCraney, who wrote the play on which the film is based. McCraney grew up in the same neighborhoods as Jenkins and attended the New World School of the Arts.
“This goes out to all those black and brown boys and girls and non-gender-conforming who don’t see themselves,” McCraney said during the ceremony.
Natalie Baldie, artistic director of the Performing and Visual Arts Center at Miami Northwestern, said she hopes the movie and its awards give students another perspective about getting out of Liberty City or going to college.
“It’s giving them hope to get through and something to look forward to,” Baldie said, sitting with AniBello, Anderson and senior Amanda Ali, who also was an extra in the film.