Barry Jenkins

Barry Jenkins

Birth : 1979-11-19, Miami, Florida, USA

History

Barry Jenkins is an award-winning writer and director based in San Francisco. He is best known for writing and directing the 2016 film Moonlight, which won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The website ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?’ lists Moonlight as the 22nd most acclaimed film of the 21st century. In 2022, Sight and Sound crowned Moonlight the 60th greatest film of all time based on responses from 1,639 critics. His following film, ‘If Beale Street Could Talk,’ was also met with critical acclaim and was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one. His feature film debut, Medicine for Melancholy, was released in theaters by IFC Films and hailed as one of the best films of 2009 by A.O. Scott of The New York Times. Filmmaker also named Jenkins one of their “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Other projects include the shorts Tall Enough and A Young Couple, and the television series ‘The Underground Railroad.’

Profile

Barry Jenkins

Movies

Mufasa: The Lion King
Director
A prequel to Disney's 2019 film, "The Lion King".
Another Young Couple
Another Young Couple — borne out of a camera test for If Beale Street Could Talk, James and I asked my friends Essence and Jihaari, newly transplanted to LA to allow us into their home for an afternoon tea about their lives and loves, apart and together. We were migrating to the Alexa 65 for Beale Street and wanted to see for ourselves how that large-format sensor would affect intimate portraiture within lived spaces… in particular the faces and spaces of Black folk.
Another Young Couple
Director
Another Young Couple — borne out of a camera test for If Beale Street Could Talk, James and I asked my friends Essence and Jihaari, newly transplanted to LA to allow us into their home for an afternoon tea about their lives and loves, apart and together. We were migrating to the Alexa 65 for Beale Street and wanted to see for ourselves how that large-format sensor would affect intimate portraiture within lived spaces… in particular the faces and spaces of Black folk.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Producer
Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.
Weapons and Their Names
Associate Producer
Struggling to connect with her grieving family after the sudden death of her stepfather, a teenager sneaks off to shoot guns in rural Florida with her best friend.
Aftersun
Producer
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.
Brad Pitt: More Than a Pretty Face
Self (archive footage)
Brad Pitt is a singular actor in Hollywood's glamorous world, breaking through his "playboy image" and embodying American cinema's renewal. At the beginning there was a humble Midwestern aware of being a smokescreen for the illusions of his time, who has managed to keep control of his image to better serve the most talented directors of our time. To name but a few: David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Terrence Malick, James Gray and soon Damien Chazelle. This documentary dives into the brain of a complex, brilliant and endearing personality, far from the cliché of a world-famous movie icon to discover the hidden side of the most handsome man in the world.
The Gaze
Director
In all my years of doing press, I've been repeatedly asked about the white gaze. Rarely have I been set upon about the Black gaze; or the gaze distilled. This is an answer to a question rarely asked.
I Wish You Would
Executive Producer
On his first day out in the world after being released from a 5250 (the police code for a mental health arrest), Stanley is beset by troubles at every turn in the road as he walks around Oakland looking for something to hold onto.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Executive Producer
A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy.
Charm City Kings
Story
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Producer
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Screenplay
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Director
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Moonlight
Screenplay
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
Moonlight
Director
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
The High Five
Producer
On October 2nd, 1977 Dusty Baker hit his 30th homerun of the season. As Baker rounded the bases, an excited rookie named Glenn Burke met him at home plate, raised his arm high in the air and slapped Baker's hand. It was the first high five recorded in the history of sports. A year later, Burke was forced out of baseball amid rumours of his sexual orientation.
King's Gym
Director
Oakland, California's "boxing gym of champions" is showcased here, its historic walls lined with posters for matches boasting past regulars from George Foreman and Joe Frazier to Gina Guidi. Though the crowded environ may be one of sweaty, noisy machismo, director Barry Jenkins' surprisingly lyrical miniature uses a delicate piano score and slow motion images to enter a contender's solitary headspace.
Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse
Star King Zorzdon Pxxa
'Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse' is the true story behind the notorious Miami face-eating cannibal and how the Miami Heat won the NBA title in 2012 despite one of their star players being an interstellar prince who was called away to do battle with evil foes bent on finally making the Internet completely useless.
Sun Don't Shine
Thanks
Crystal and her boyfriend Leo embark on a tense and mysterious road trip through the desolate yet hauntingly beautiful landscape of central Florida.
Chlorophyl
Writer
The story of a young girl and her fleeting relationship with a scoundrel.
Chlorophyl
Director
The story of a young girl and her fleeting relationship with a scoundrel.
Remigration
Director
Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again?
Remigration
Producer
Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again?
Remigration
Writer
Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again?
Tall Enough
Writer
Love knows no borders in this stylish snapshot of interracial coupledom. Two Brooklyn photographers (she, African-American; he, Chinese-American) meet and their romance blossoms and endures back home, amidst a poetical widescreen mix of images both seductive and sedate.
Tall Enough
Director
Love knows no borders in this stylish snapshot of interracial coupledom. Two Brooklyn photographers (she, African-American; he, Chinese-American) meet and their romance blossoms and endures back home, amidst a poetical widescreen mix of images both seductive and sedate.
A Young Couple
Director
A couple discuss their relationship.
One Shot
Director
Its single hand-held shot lends both immediacy of viewpoint and a floating unreality to a young woman's visit to a Seattle convenience store, seemingly fraught with menacing purpose.
Medicine for Melancholy
Writer
Waking from a one-night stand that neither remembers, Micah and Joanne find themselves wandering the streets of San Francisco, sharing coffee and conversation and searching for a deeper connection.
Medicine for Melancholy
Director
Waking from a one-night stand that neither remembers, Micah and Joanne find themselves wandering the streets of San Francisco, sharing coffee and conversation and searching for a deeper connection.
Little Brown Boy
Writer
A little brown boy gets caught up in a violent shooting and must come to terms with the incident and the part he has played.
Little Brown Boy
Director
A little brown boy gets caught up in a violent shooting and must come to terms with the incident and the part he has played.
My Josephine
Writer
Aadid tells us his life in seven minutes. He's an Arabic-speaking young man working the night shift at a laundromat and dry cleaners somewhere in the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, they wash U.S. flags for free. He says they get six or seven per day. He tells us about Napoleon's two wives: Marie Louise for an heir, Josephine for love. Aadid likes Adela, his co-worker. She's his Josephine. We watch Aadid and Adela hand wash the flags and put them in dryers. They fold them. They dance. They stand side by side outside the door of the laundromat looking at the dawn. Will this companionship become something more?
My Josephine
Director
Aadid tells us his life in seven minutes. He's an Arabic-speaking young man working the night shift at a laundromat and dry cleaners somewhere in the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, they wash U.S. flags for free. He says they get six or seven per day. He tells us about Napoleon's two wives: Marie Louise for an heir, Josephine for love. Aadid likes Adela, his co-worker. She's his Josephine. We watch Aadid and Adela hand wash the flags and put them in dryers. They fold them. They dance. They stand side by side outside the door of the laundromat looking at the dawn. Will this companionship become something more?
Untitled Barry Jenkins Project
Writer
A feature adaptation of the documentary, VIRUNGA, about Congolese park rangers fighting to protect endangered gorillas amid oil-company exploitation.
Untitled Barry Jenkins 'Virunga' Adaptation
Writer
A feature adaptation of the 2014 Oscar-nominated documentary VIRUNGA.
Flint Strong
Producer
Flint Strong tells the true story of 17-year-old Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, a Flint, Michigan native whose dreams of becoming the first woman in history to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing were realized at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Shields won a second gold medal in women’s middleweight boxing.
Flint Strong
Writer
Flint Strong tells the true story of 17-year-old Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, a Flint, Michigan native whose dreams of becoming the first woman in history to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing were realized at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Shields won a second gold medal in women’s middleweight boxing.
Untitled Alvin Ailey Project
Executive Producer
The life story of acclaimed American choreographer Alvin Ailey.
Untitled Alvin Ailey Project
Director
The life story of acclaimed American choreographer Alvin Ailey.