Moonlight

Barry Jenkins’s award-winning coming-of-age tale Moonlight follows Chiron, a sensitive gay Black youth navigating homophobia and violence in Miami. With sensual cinematography and powerful performances, the film reveals many of the damaging effects patriarchy and social expectations have on men themselves. Tarell Alvin McCraney’s deft screenplay exposes the wounds Chiron accumulates during his childhood and adolescence as well as the work required to move beyond them, making space for true tenderness and vulnerability. Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes give standout performances as Chiron, alongside André Holland, Janelle Monáe, and Mahershala Ali. The film’s accolades include Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Ali. (111 mins., DCP)

Made during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston is a dreamy black-and-white meditation on the queer Black experience, with Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century serving as iconic touchstones. The film channels Hughes and his artistic and social milieu, adding the voice of James Baldwin and the poetry of Essex Hemphill to create links to the contemporary moment. This lush collage unveils the pain of being silenced and ostracized for who you are while tenderly displaying love between Black men. Julien is a past Wexner Center Artist Residency Award recipient, visiting the center in 1996. (45 mins., DCP) 

See the complete Tender Masculinity lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION 
Left to right: Moonlight, courtesy of A24; Looking for Langston, courtesy of Strand Releasing.