Director RaMell Ross discusses portrayal of Black experiences in upcoming film ‘Nickel Boys’

Director RaMell Ross and actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor ’92 discussed their upcoming film, “Nickel Boys,” in a Monday Q&A discussion moderated by Prudence Carter ’91, the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. 

The film, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel of the same name, follows two Black teens — Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) — and their experiences at Nickel Academy, a reform school based on the infamous Dozier School for Boys in Florida, which inspired Whitehead’s novel.

“I hope that the film creates an experiential monument of the Dozier School for Boys,” Ross said at the panel. “I think that’s the best we can do given the incalculable loss and the repair that seems almost impossible.”

Ross, a professor of visual art at Brown, said he strives to question historical reproductions of Black experiences in the media. 

“Nickel Boys,” for example, avoids explicit depictions of violence against Black bodies, though it does not shy away from the horrific, violent nature of the school. Instead, the entirety of the film is told through point-of-view shots from either Elwood or Turner, highlighting their personality and character, rather than placing a focus on the abuse they endure.

“Reproducing trauma makes it seem like that’s supposed to happen or that’s normal,” Ross explained. “I’m interested in creating media that’s as complex as the result of the violence.”

The cinematography also seeks to capture subjective experience. The cuts in the film “aren’t plot-driven,” Ross said. “They’re all more ephemeral and fleeting representations of the attempts to be in someone’s head.”

Ross and his co-writer Jocelyn Barnes hoped that the film’s themes of love — highlighted in Elwood’s grandmother Hattie (Ellis-Taylor) — would carry more emotional weight than the depictions of violence. In an interview with The Herald, Ross discussed how this love, which manifests in different characters throughout the film, keeps both Elwood and Turner afloat.

Ross also spoke on the importance of working on a project about social equality and discussing it at Brown.

“It’s always grounding to work on projects about social equality when you’re in places in which the conversation seems to exclude those who are more disenfranchised,” he said.  

Ellis-Taylor, who plays Hattie in the film, said that as a Black artist, her ability to perform in such a project is “an anomaly.”

“I get to be a part of the correction of the absence of truth and that gives me tremendous joy,” she added.

“Nickel Boys” is set to have a limited theatrical release on Dec. 13.

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