Golden Globe Best Picture movie features Liberty City
Miami Dade’s low-income community Liberty City gained new notoriety last week with the movie Moonlight that won the Golden Globe award for “Best Picture – Drama.”
The movie which is currently showing on the local movie circuit was written and directed by former Liberty City resident Barry Jenkins, Another Liberty City resident, Tarrell Alvin McCraney, originally wrote the autobiographical short play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” from which Jenkins adapted the script for Moonlight.
Moonlight is three-part story about a young boy—and, later, young man—growing up in Liberty City, Miami. The lead role is performed by three actors, Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes. Two actresses, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali, were also nominated as supporting actress and actors, respectively, for their role in the movie.
McCraney wrote play back in the summer of 2003, after graduating from DePaul University with a BFA in acting, and shortly after his mother, a drug addict died, a victim of HIV/AIDS.
Jenkins is a graduate of Northwestern High School in Miami, who later studied motion picture arts and writing at Florida State University. After graduating from FSU he pursued a film making career in Los Angeles, but returned to his Miami roots to direct Moonlight.
Production of the movie became a reality when producer Adele Romanski became interested in the screen play and she secured the required funding from actor Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B and distributor A24 Films.
The film was shot in little over three weeks last October in Miami.
Some of the cast members included students from the Norland Middle School’s Performing Arts Magnet Program. Fifteen male students were auditioned for the lead role and two, Alex Hibbert, 11, and Jaden Piner, 12 were accepted.
“Moonlight” made its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September, and was also shown at festivals in Toronto, New York and London, before opening nationally in the US last October.
