Exclusive: Moonlight Editor Joi McMillon Reteams With Director Janicza Bravo On A24’s Stripper Film ZolaPosted by Wilson Morales
November 16, 2018
Blackfilm.com has learned that Joi McMillon, who was Oscar nominated for co-editing the Academy Award Best Picture Moonlight, will be reteaming with director Janicza Bravo on the latter’s next project, A24’s stripper film Zola.
The two previous worked on Bravo’s last film, Lemon, which was McMillon’s first solo effort on a theatrical release.
Zola is based on a Rolling Stones article titled, Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted by David Kushner. In 2015, Aziah ‘Zola’ Wells sent out a series of tweets that detailed a wild 2-day Flordia trip with a sex worker named Jessica, her boyfriend Jarrett, and Jessica’s violent pimp, who went by X.
Taylour Paige will star as the title character, with Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo & Jason Mitchell included in the cast.
McMillon’s next feature (with co-editor Nat Sanders) is Barry Jenkins‘ upcoming If Beale Street Could Talk. McMillon and Sanders both worked on Moonlight, was her first feature-length editing credit. With the Oscar nomination for the film, she became the first African-American woman to be nominated for Best Editing and only the second Black person thus far.
Principal photography On Zola began on October 29, 2018.
