Video Essay: Recurring Imagery in Best Picture Winner MOONLIGHT

Since we're a couple of weeks out from the Oscars, we seem to finally be far enough away that people can start to appreciate Moonlight's Best Picture win on its own instead of associating it with the fiasco that happened during the ceremony. I'll take any opportunity I can to write about Barry Jenkins' beautiful, thoughtful meditation on manhood, sexuality, and the gay black experience in America, and even though I admittedly didn't love the film as unabashedly as many of my colleagues, I still appreciate its messages and am consistently floored by its terrific cinematography.

Editor Jacob T. Swinney (via The Playlist) noticed a ton of recurring images throughout the film's triptych narrative, and he edited them together in a side-by-side video that shows off the repeating visual motifs. If you haven't seen the film, do yourself a favor and check it out in a theater before it heads to VOD: it's a gorgeous-looking movie that deserves to be seen on a big screen.

MOONLIGHT is a story told in three parts: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Director Barry Jenkin's uses repeated imagery throughout the three parts in order to suture the film together as one cohesive piece of life. This video utilizes split-screen to display a side-by-side comparison of similar shots in different phases of Chiron's life. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.