Film adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s best-selling book nickel boyDirector Rummel Rose tells the story largely from a subjective point of view, with the camera acting as the eyes of protagonists Elwood (Ethan Herris and Daveed Diggs) and Turner (Brandon Wilson).
Ross told us that the immersive experience hollywood reporter On the eve of the opening night screenings of the 2024 New York Film Festival nickel boyaims to put the viewer in the same position as the characters, which he calls a “perceptual experiment.”
“I wonder how black people feel when they see their own perspectives in images alongside cinematic images, and then I also wonder how other non-black people feel about walking in someone else’s shoes as much as possible through cinematic imagery,” Ross talked about why he wanted to use this unconventional technique. “It’s like a perceptual experiment that combines character reality, lived reality and sensory reality with the audience, and in my opinion, it’s something worth collecting.”
nickel boy Tells the story of Elwood and Turner attending the fictional Nickel Academy, which was inspired by the real-life Dozier School for Boys, a Florida reform school that operated from 1900 to 2011, where students allegedly They were beaten, raped and killed before being buried in secret cemeteries.
Cinematographer Jomo Fray said he and Ross’ goal with the film was “immersion.”
“What we really wanted was an immersive image, one that brought us as viewers into the story,” Frey told us THR exist nickel boyNew York Film Festival red carpet. “For us, first and foremost we wanted the image to always feel like the image could be in danger. Being black and traveling through the segregated South was a dangerous time. It felt like the image itself could be in danger at any time. consistent with the experiences of those who have passed through the images.
Frey added that the approach also aims to convey “the beauty, joy, and wonder of what happened to life and being a human being despite the inhumane conditions and laws that may have been relevant to you during that period.”
This approach also allowed Foley to interact more directly with the actors, allowing him to “get into the emotion,” he said.
“If the camera embraces the actors, it’s me embracing them, and as an image-maker you have a fundamentally different relationship,” Frey said. “It’s not just about watching people have emotions. In many cases, I need to be as vulnerable as the people around me in the scene, to guide the actors through the camera in a more direct way, and for the actors to be in a more direct way than I can. Interacting with me. Over. I think it gave me such a deep appreciation for movies because I was able to see a scene and a moment from a different perspective, an emotional internal perspective.
Producer and co-writer Jocelyn Barnes said the film’s point of view helped Roth figure out “how to handle the twists in the novel.” Daveed Diggs, who plays the adult Elwood, tells us THR Ross’s immersive approach is “Why [he] Say yes to this project.
In preparing for the role, Diggs said he had “a lot of conversations” with Ross, which he called “a pretty technical gig.”
“I was getting on a train that was already moving because of the way it was photographed,” Diggs said. THR. “I asked [Ross] Send me a bunch of footage so I can understand the visual storytelling.
Although the boys at Nickel Academy were abused and, in some cases, killed, the film did not show the violence suffered by the characters. Ross said it was a conscious decision not to show too many traumatic images.
“I don’t want to recreate that. There’s enough of it and a lot of it is really, really beneficial because we can understand and see it, but at some point it becomes rote and the sentimentality or the emotional impact of it becomes It’s kind of hollow, and I think you realize otherwise, there are countless ways to do it,” Ross said. “Once you decide not to do it, you think, ‘Oh, wait, I can think of a thousand ways to achieve the same thing. Why don’t I try one of them?
Frey added that Ross told him he didn’t want to “see violence” or “hear racial slurs” in the film.
“Ultimately, we all knew that was part of the segregated South. We all knew that was part of the Nickel Academy,” he said. “For us, it’s really about showing images that we haven’t seen, showing realities that we haven’t seen, showing them from angles that we haven’t seen to allow for a deeper exploration. I think sometimes when things end in trauma, When it’s shown in a sexual way or in a graphically violent way, I think there’s an interesting way that it confuses the conversation and it makes you understand how inhumane what’s going on here is.
Herries added that the film’s “poetic” images, even the “difficult ones,” “stick with you in a way that allows you to be in a place and experience life through someone’s eyes.” , and this feeling won’t go away.
“There’s no actual violence depicted in the movie, but I think the way they deal with it still really stays with you and affects you,” Herries said.
Anjani Ellis Taylor, who plays Elwood’s grandmother, hopes viewers feel this personal impact from the film.
“I hope people feel the impact of it and change, more than anything else,” she told THR. “I hope it broadens and expands our sense of what’s possible on camera and on film.”
Roth comes from the documentary world – his 2018 Impressionist documentary Hall County This Morning Tonight It has won a series of awards for its depictions of black life and injustice in rural Alabama. nickel boy Continuing the theme of the film and its method of carving a portrait of a place through flashes of images and fragments of everyday experience. At an after-party for the film at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, Ross was greeted by a crowd of well-wishers, many of them from the documentary community, eager to congratulate him and share his perspective.
The film follows Amazon MGM Studios’ effort to secure its second Best Picture Oscar nomination in as many years following a spring 2023 rebrand. The work received nominations for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. American novel at the 2024 Academy Awards.
nickel boyThe unconventional style and structure may challenge some voters, although their discussions were especially positive when party-goers mingled.
Ross, for his part, said he’s interested in writing beyond awards season. “Perhaps this film can become the core or representative of a series of memories [of racial inequity],” he told the festival audience before the screening. “For them, the film sculpture or monument will always be Rushmore.”
Later, in a post-screening Q&A with Roth, Foley and the cast, Ellis-Taylor reflected on how despite the lack of violence on screen, some people told her the film was “difficult to watch” and “they felt bad after watching it.” Oops”. No hope. “
Despite feeling “troubled, uneasy, worried” [and] Ellis Taylor was “dismayed” by the response, saying she thought Roth’s film did an excellent job of depicting trauma.
“I love what Rummel is doing because he makes the pain of black people, or the pain of these children, contagious, which means it transfers to us, so it’s shared,” she said. “It’s hard, but I feel like they’re not getting hope. They don’t know what it’s like not to feel alone, and they don’t have any escape. I feel like maybe we should have a little bit of that. I think what Rummel did The thing that’s so brilliant is that we’re not observers of what’s happening to these kids, we’re a part of it, and we feel that, too, and I think, for me, I’ve seen a lot about black pain. Movies, that changes it because we’re not the observers; we’re the recipients of it.
Steven Zeitchik contributed to this report.
