Drawing inspiration for screen from S.F.
‘Beale Street’ director Jenkins made pivotal connections in city
When Barry Jenkins thinks about the genesis of his film career, he traces it to the phone banking job in the Sunset District of San Francisco.
The “If Beale Street Could Talk” director was working on the Fiona Ma for state Assembly campaign in 2006, when he met a series of people who inspired his first film, the moody set-in-San Francisco love story “Medicine for Melancholy.”
“What I just love about that time is that everything was so connected,” Jenkins said of his 2008 debut film. “Literally, you could go from phone banking, to … hanging out at the Cat Club, to meeting this woman, to then writing this story and go film at these places. Everything was (attainable) back then.”
Jenkins spent his time writing after “Medicine,” heading to Europe to finish two scripts. The first one was “Moonlight,” the 2016 drama that resulted in an Academy Award for best picture, and a best adapted screenplay win for Jenkins.
The second, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” arrives in theaters on Christmas. In many ways it’s the more challenging of the two projects. Jenkins wrote the adaptation of the James Baldwin book without permission from the late author’s estate.
“It had been five years since my first film, I was kind of in a rut in my career, and I just went off and adapted the book without the rights to it,” Jenkins said, during an interview at The Chronicle for “The Big Event” podcast. “I think that’s probably why I was able to do it. There was no pressure. I didn’t expect anybody to actually consider it.”
Baldwin and his estate have been notoriously choosy. “Beale Street” is the first feature film adaptation of
one of Baldwin’s works in the English language. But after an uphill climb, Jenkins received permission — even before “Moonlight” became one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2017.
“If Beale Street Could Talk” follows young couple Tish and Fonny (KiKi Layne and Stephan James), who fall in love in New York but are separated when Fonny is accused of a crime. Tish and the couple’s families — and the greater community — work together in hopes of preventing an injustice that could destroy lives.
Jenkins said he considered setting the 1970s novel in 2018, in part to save money. But he ultimately chose to film in the right period, in part to maintain a stronger connection to Baldwin’s work.
“I think people watch more than they read these days, so I felt like this was a wonderful opportunity to introduce people to the work of Baldwin,” Jenkins said. “Because of that, I knew I wanted to make a very faithful adaptation.”
The film is moody, bright and almost dreamlike in its visual approach. Jenkins continues to work with several filmmakers from his “Medicine”/San Francisco days, including cinematographer James Laxton and editor Nat Sanders.
Jenkins says they all stretched themselves for “Beale Street.” A centerpiece scene that alternates humor and shocking drama, taken directly from the book, has Tish and her parents telling Fonny’s holy roller mother and sisters about her pregnancy.
“For me it was terrifying to film,” Jenkins said. “I’m a guy who, if you look at my past work, there are maybe two or three scenes where at (the most) three people are speaking. In this scene you have nine characters sitting in a living room and having this conversation.”
When Jenkins stopped through San Francisco while promoting “Beale Street” in October, his social media accounts were a tour of old haunts; he ate at Bar Agricole, and did laundry at a laundromat near his former SoMa apartment.
While promoting “Beale Street,” Jenkins is quick to turn to his first film, and its ultra-low-budget charms. Jenkins talks enthusiastically about the San Francisco businesses that let him film on location for free, because he was a regular, including the Knockout Room in the La Lengua district south of the Mission District.
“I said, ‘Hey, what’s the slowest night of the week? Would you mind if we came there with a film crew, and we’ll cover everybody’s drinks,’ ” Jenkins remembered. “We had this party at the Knockout that was fueled by $3 shots of very, very bottom-well whiskey. But this lovely sequence came out of it. And that’s how that movie came together.”
The filmmaker says he doesn’t quite feel like a native after being gone for nearly a decade. But he still feels a strong connection to the city. And the success of “Moonlight” and “Beale Street,” movies that take place far from San Francisco, hasn’t changed any of that.
“Of my adult life, this is still the place I’ve spent the most time,” Jenkins says. “I was in the Bay Area for eight years. Six years in San Francisco and two years in Oakland. Whenever I come back, I do feel a sense of nostalgia, a sense of possession I should say, especially because ‘Medicine for Melancholy’ is sort of a time capsule. It’s like this artistic or social document of a very specific point in the city’s life.”