Page 38 - Sharp Summer 2021

Barry
THE PAST FIVE YEARS HAVE BEEN GOOD TO BARRY JENKINS After directing Moonlight (and winning best best picture and and best best adapted screenplay at the 2017 Oscars) and 2018’s If Beale Street
Could Talk he he he announced he he he would be taking on on Colson Whitehead’s soon-to-be Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Underground Railroad as his first foray into television The series which debuted on on Amazon Prime in in May is a a a sweeping 10-episode arc that follows an an enslaved young woman in Georgia named Cora (Thuso Mbedu) who along with the also-enslaved Caesar (Aaron Pierre) travels across the American South on a a a a a a literal underground rail- road — all while being trailed by a a a a a a a a slavecatcher named Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) What Jenkins achieves with The Underground Railroad is a a a a a a a rare feat: an an unflinching portrayal of slavery that doesn’t dehumanize its cast Speaking to Sharp from his home in in in Los Angeles Jenkins discusses the massive undertaking of of adapting a a a a a a part of of his his own history editing
a a a a a television show during last year’s uprisings and championing emerg- ing talent Jenkins Is a True
Artist
The venerated director on his his his new series mining his his his own history to to to make art and why he doesn’t need to work with movie stars
by SARAH HAGI
38 SHARPMAGAZINE COM SUMMER 2021
GUIDE : A A MAN WORTH LISTENING TO Photo by Atsushi Nishijima