The image making geniuses behind Nickel Boys

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DIRECTOR/co-writer
RAMELL ROSS
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cinematographer
jomo fray

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Director/Co-Writer RaMell Ross and Cinematographer Jomo Fray discuss their work together on Nickel Boys. The duo talk about their innovative visual language used to tell the story based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It centers on two African-American boys, Elwood and Turner (played by Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson), who are sent to an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida.

Explaining the first-person approach, known as ‘sentient perspective’, Ross says "What if we gave Turner and Elwood their own cameras? What would they see and how would they make meaning if they were using the camera as an extension of consciousness?"

Fray adds “To build what RaMell was looking for necessitated unlearning everything I think I know about cinema. We wanted to build an image that didn’t look like sight but felt like sight, that felt like memory, that was jazz-like.”

The interview delves into the duos careful creative process, the thoughtfulness behind their decisions and how they charted a bold new exploration of cinema.

In this extended interview, we offer you a deep dive into the cabinet of curiosities, a quick-fire series of questions with some fascinating and revelatory answers. Jomo’s favourite book? He’s torn between two. RaMell’s life motto? A beautiful quotation that you’ll want to learn off by heart. That’s just for starters. It is a joy to get to know two of the most thoughtful, intelligent, caring, innovators of storytelling. Ross and Fray are making daring films that awaken our curiosity and inspire us to dig deeper.

Length: 20 minutes
Interview: The Lab Mag
Camera: Raeshib Aggerwhil & Miguel Arcilla
Sound: Royce Hall
In Partnership with: Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios

In Partnership with

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very laboratory

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