hello stranger
“To my first love, I’m grateful for you. Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was. Some things never are.. and we were. I won’t forget you. I won’t forget the summer. I’ll remember who I was when I met you. I’ll remember who you were and how we’ve both changed and stayed the same.”
“Feelings can creep up just like that. I thought I was in control.”
film · moonlight, which firmly placed barry jenkins at the forefront of contemporary american cinema, is a challenging and graceful story in three parts. void of cliche, this measured masterpiece casts a blue-tinted light on blackness and queerness, masculinity and identity in a way that has never been done before.
words i · in his open letter, frank ocean delicately and rhythmically tells us of his first love—how it shaped him then and why it matters now. frank ocean also contributed to the limited edition moonlight book.
music · barbara lewis’s hello stranger plays in the final act of moonlight, evoking bittersweet moments past and encapsulating the strangeness and familiarity of the present.
photographs · named as a visual reference for moonlight's art direction, henry roy captures dreamy moments of quietude, existence, and expectancy.
words ii · from wong kar-wai’s 2001 art film in the mood for love. jenkins cites this classic as a prominent influence on his own work, as is evident in moonlight.
paintings · up-and-coming artist from madison, wisconsin alex jackson juxtaposes darkness and vibrancy in these selected works from 2013 to 2018.