{"id":84569,"date":"2018-10-02T17:33:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T17:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2018\/10\/02\/tiff-2018-exclusive-director-barry-jenkins-talks-if-beale-street-could-talk\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T01:33:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T01:33:43","slug":"tiff-2018-exclusive-director-barry-jenkins-talks-if-beale-street-could-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/tiff-2018-exclusive-director-barry-jenkins-talks-if-beale-street-could-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"TIFF 2018 Exclusive: Director Barry Jenkins Talks If Beale Street Could Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>TIFF 2018 Exclusive: Director Barry Jenkins Talks If Beale Street Could Talk<\/strong>By Wilson Morales<\/p>\n<p>October 1, 2018<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignleft size-medium wp-image-113790\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 203 300'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-Poster-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Following its World Premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Blackfilm.com had the opportunity to speak exclusively with\u00a0Academy Award-winning Moonlight director <strong>Barry Jenkin<\/strong>s about his upcoming film<strong>If Beale Street Could Talk.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cast of the film includes<strong>\u00a0Kiki Layne,\u00a0Stephan James, Teyonah Parris, Regina King, Colman Domingo,\u00a0<b>Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, Ed Skrein, Michael Beach,\u00a0Aunjanue Ellis and Finn Wittrock and Diego Luna.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Annapurna Pictures will release the film in select theaters on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-cast.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignright size-medium wp-image-105811\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 200'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-cast-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Based on the novel by James Baldwin and set in early-1970s Harlem, If Beale Street Could Talk is a timeless and moving love story of both a couple\u2019s unbreakable bond and the African-American family\u2019s empowering embrace, as told through the eyes of 19-year-old Tish Rivers (screen newcomer KiKi Layne). A daughter and wife-to-be, Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fianc\u00e9 Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny (Stephan James). Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.<\/p>\n<p>Through the unique intimacy and power of cinema, If Beale Street Could Talk honors the author\u2019s prescient words and imagery, charting the emotional currents navigated in an unforgiving and racially biased world as the filmmaker poetically crosses time frames to show how love and humanity endure.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N4m3t3G3Zqc\" width=\"580\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-director-Barry-Jenkins-at-EssenceFest-2018.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignleft size-medium wp-image-111659\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 200 300'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-director-Barry-Jenkins-at-EssenceFest-2018-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What was the most challenging aspect of converting this from a book to screen?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> I have admired James Baldwin for so long. The book is one thing and the film is another thing. It wasn&#8217;t necessarily a challenge, but really getting to a point where I felt like I could take authorship of the piece. It was a process. The way I did that was just by really settling in and understanding that James Baldwin told the story of his novel. But for me, perspective-wise, Tish Rivers is telling the story of this film. It&#8217;s her point of view. Once we set into that, all of the choices kind of fell into place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Then you have the words, you have the action scenes. What was more important as far as conveying to an audience? The scenery, the words, or the characters?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_114010\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-114010\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-cast-at-TIFF-2018.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload size-medium wp-image-114010\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 207'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-cast-at-TIFF-2018-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-114010\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brian Tyree Henry, Regina King, Colman Domingo, KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Barry Jenkins, Writer\/Director\/Producer, Teyonah Parris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> It was kind of a combination of all of that, especially the dialogue. To me, Baldwin&#8217;s a very eloquent man. The fact that we have voiceover, that Tish is speaking so many of Baldwin&#8217;s amazing words was really important to me. But also, too, the dialogue, the things these characters say, was just as important.<\/p>\n<p>What it came down, to me, was casting. Because the language is so specific, and we wanted to find actors who could take the language and bend it, preserve the words, but bend it to a place where it&#8217;s a period piece, but it&#8217;s very relevant to what&#8217;s happening today. Some of these that these characters say did not need to be changed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you talk about your cast? KiKi Layne, a newcomer to the screen. How did she come to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_114009\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-114009\" style=\"width: 197px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Kiki-Layne-at-TIFF-2018-with-If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload size-medium wp-image-114009\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 197 300'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Kiki-Layne-at-TIFF-2018-with-If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-114009\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">KiKi Layne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> KiKi grabbed the bull by the horns. She had just moved to LA and a friend of hers who is a more seasoned actor, who just has more credits, he was putting himself on tape for the film. When you do that, you bring an actor friend over to stand behind the character and read the other side. So, as KiKi was reading the Tish lines for her friend, who was auditioning for Fonny, she looked down and realized, &#8220;Wait. Why aren&#8217;t I auditioning for this?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, she contacted her people and sent in a tape. And it was a fantastic tape. We just paired her with Stephan for a chemistry read and the rest is on screen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stephan was the first one onboard?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> Stephan was onboard, yes. And then we tried to find someone who had good chemistry with him for Tish.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Beale-Colman-Domingo-Regina-King-and-Kiki-Layne.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignright size-medium wp-image-114005\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 200'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Beale-Colman-Domingo-Regina-King-and-Kiki-Layne-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>We don&#8217;t see Regina King that often on film, at least in the last few years, so how did you convince her to be on this movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> One of the really wonderful things that I felt privileged about with this film was the sell was: It&#8217;s James Baldwin. So, it wasn&#8217;t about selling me. &#8216;Cause I feel like I wasn&#8217;t the part of this puzzle that people needed to hear. It was that we were gonna bring Jimmy&#8217;s work to the screen, and his native tongue, and his native home, Harlem, for the first time ever.<\/p>\n<p>Regina, as much as she was a fan of Moonlight and Medicine for Melancholy, I think she was just as big a fan of Mr. Baldwin&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Kiki-Layne-and-Stephan-James-in-If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignleft size-medium wp-image-114008\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 200'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Kiki-Layne-and-Stephan-James-in-If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now, let&#8217;s go back. Moonlight&#8217;s done. You win the Oscar. Lot of projects being thrown at you. Why this one<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> Because I&#8217;d already promised myself that I was going to make these two films. I wrote them at the same time, back in 2013, and to me they spoke to different aspects of the black experience, but they both spoke to an authentic black experience in America. It felt like they were in conversation with one another. So, even before award season, before the Oscars, all of that, I knew that I was going to find a way to make this film next, once I got the rights to the book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We don&#8217;t see it black love on screen. We see black love displayed through the central characters, through the parents, especially with Coleman Domingo and Regina King. Why was that important, to place that as an emphasis?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_113450\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-113450\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/if-beale-street-could-talk-AM2_3404_rgb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload size-medium wp-image-113450\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 243'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/if-beale-street-could-talk-AM2_3404_rgb-300x243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-113450\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colman Domingo, Regina King, KiKi Layne, Stephan James<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> I think it was one of the aspects of the book that grabbed me right away and held me, I would say, continuously. But also, I felt like there was this nice mirror between the young people in the film, Tish and Fonny, and her parents, Joseph and Sharon. And that by showing these two different generations, that Tish and Fonny could look to them and be like, &#8220;We&#8217;re going through something, but we&#8217;re gonna get there.&#8221; Your parents are an example of where we&#8217;re going to get.<\/p>\n<p>And also, too, this book has a teenage pregnancy. We&#8217;ve seen what that story is like, when you tell your father, &#8220;I&#8217;m not married to this guy. I am pregnant.&#8221; Just, the way Mr. Baldwin wrote it, where it&#8217;s so much love and embracing. It&#8217;s a community. A very strong family core, it was really important to me. And that aspect of it, actually, inspired some of the decisions that we made.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Stephan-James-as-Fonny-and-KiKi-Layne-as-Tish-star-in-Barry-Jenkins\u2019-IF-BEALE-STREET-COULD-TALK.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignleft size-medium wp-image-114011\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 200'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Stephan-James-as-Fonny-and-KiKi-Layne-as-Tish-star-in-Barry-Jenkins\u2019-IF-BEALE-STREET-COULD-TALK-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>As we&#8217;re talking about James Baldwin, you said it yourself: Why is it taking so long for any of this stuff to get out there? Is it that hard of a sell? Or do you have to be in a position like you are, winner and all of that, to have the right people say, &#8220;Okay. You&#8217;re at a point where we can greenlight whatever you want.&#8221; Is it difficult?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> That&#8217;s a question for the estate to answer. I can&#8217;t say why Mr. Baldwin hasn&#8217;t been adapted before. I&#8217;m not the first person who&#8217;s tried, I will say that. But I think, also, everything has a time and a place, and maybe the timing was just right. I have to say: I wasn&#8217;t the first. Raoul Peck made the amazing documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, and I have no doubt that Raoul making the documentary the way he made it, so respectfully and so wonderfully, that it helped influence the Baldwin estate to have faith in me to take, now, a piece of fiction and adapt it to screen.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-Kiki-Layne-as-Tish.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignright size-medium wp-image-114007\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 201'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-Kiki-Layne-as-Tish-300x201.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I think all these things are working in concert and I think the world is ready for James Baldwin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Can you talk about creating the 70s look at Harlem?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> Harlem is a place that is undeniable. It is a period piece, it&#8217;s set in the early 1970s, so it was tricky about finding places that had not been touched, that still had that same patina from when the book was written and when it&#8217;s set. And yet, Harlem is this place that&#8217;s always gonna be Harlem. So, it was really nice to go to New York with the support of Annapurna, it was more expensive to make the movie in New York, but we had to make it in New York. And to just see all these faces. To turn the camera and realize, &#8220;We&#8217;re making a film, but it looks like a Roy DeCarava portrait. Which was really important to us. It looks like a Gordon Parks portrait.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Barry-Jenkins-and-Nicholas-Britell-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignleft size-medium wp-image-114214\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 236'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Barry-Jenkins-and-Nicholas-Britell-2-300x236.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"236\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s talk about your team. You&#8217;ve got your composer Nicholas Britell and your editor. Can you talk about the collaborative effort that you have with your core team?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> I think the way that we make these films, it&#8217;s a very fluid process. I think it takes a village to raise a child, and with the films that we make, it&#8217;s very tricky, difficult subject matter. It&#8217;s nice to look to your left and see somebody who&#8217;s family, who&#8217;s here making these things with you. The same way we have a family on screen, there&#8217;s a family behind the camera as well. I think it helps, &#8217;cause some of the choices that we make maybe don&#8217;t make sense at first, but the family always supports. So, we see those choices all the way through.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Barry-Jenkins-photo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignright size-medium wp-image-114215\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 212'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Barry-Jenkins-photo-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Before Moonlight, you were always a programmer here or there. So, you&#8217;ve seen a lot of films. Can you go back to being humble and seeing films? Like &#8220;I wanna see that.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> No, undoubtedly. I still program the short films at the Telluride Film Festival. So, every summer, I watch two or three hundred short films by filmmakers I&#8217;ve never heard of. And talk about being humble. Some of the work I see is so impressive, it makes me feel like I&#8217;ve gotta up my game. Something I feel like I&#8217;ll always do, without reason, to stay grounded: I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll have a problem not being humble, but it&#8217;s nice to be reminded where you came from. So, I program the shorts because I see the future in all those filmmakers and I realize that I need to keep making work, to be a part of the cycle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Barry-Jenkins-2018.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignleft size-medium wp-image-114216\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 300 169'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Barry-Jenkins-2018-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s coming up next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> Yeah, we&#8217;re actively working on the Underground Railroad right now, with Amazon, the limited series that we&#8217;re gonna do. That&#8217;ll definitely be the next thing. It&#8217;s gonna be a massive endeavor, and maybe after that I&#8217;ll take a vacation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>At the end of the day, when people say, If Beale Street Could Talk, should they be reading the James Baldwin novel prior to seeing the movie<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" class=\"lazyload alignright size-medium wp-image-114217\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 196 300'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/If-Beale-Street-Could-Talk-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Barry Jenkins:<\/strong> You know, I go back and forth on this, man. I think there&#8217;re people who have read the book that see the film and maybe there&#8217;re things &#8230; Because, just like with a performance, in Moonlight, for example, there are a few scenes with Mahershala and Janelle that are not in the film, but it&#8217;s in the performance.<\/p>\n<p>So, I think people who&#8217;ve read the book, when they see the film, there&#8217;s no way for every scene from the book to be in the film, but it&#8217;s in the performance. I think it&#8217;s in the DNA of the piece. The whole cast read the book. We were all familiar with it. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s one right or wrong way to do it. I think you can see the film and go to the book or you can read the book and then come to the film. Either way, there&#8217;s gonna be expectations that, not that we&#8217;re trying to meet or not, but I think it sets the table, one way or the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TIFF 2018 Exclusive: Director Barry Jenkins Talks If Beale Street Could TalkBy Wilson Morales October 1, 2018 Following its World Premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Blackfilm.com had the opportunity to speak exclusively with\u00a0Academy Award-winning Moonlight director Barry Jenkins about his upcoming filmIf Beale Street Could Talk. The cast of the film includes\u00a0Kiki [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/tiff-2018-exclusive-director-barry-jenkins-talks-if-beale-street-could-talk\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":84878,"comment_status":"1","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,143],"tags":[],"reaction":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-84569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-read"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>TIFF 2018 Exclusive: Director Barry Jenkins Talks If Beale Street Could Talk - blackfilm.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/tiff-2018-exclusive-director-barry-jenkins-talks-if-beale-street-could-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TIFF 2018 Exclusive: Director Barry Jenkins Talks If Beale Street Could Talk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TIFF 2018 Exclusive: Director Barry Jenkins Talks If Beale Street Could TalkBy Wilson Morales October 1, 2018 Following its World Premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Blackfilm.com had the opportunity to speak exclusively with\u00a0Academy Award-winning Moonlight director Barry Jenkins about his upcoming filmIf Beale Street Could Talk. 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