Queer Media – Moonlight

“Queer viewers are no longer bereft of  the opportunity to see ourselves on screens and devices large, small, fixed, and portable” – (Ouellette and Gray 157).

This week, I decided to zone in on the film I will primarily be discussing for my final project, which is the 2016 film Moonlight. This Oscar-winning film received much attention, positive and negative, as it portrays a story we do not usually see in the media: the story of a young, black man struggling with his sexuality and identity from childhood through adulthood. I used this quote from the keywords book, as I feel like many people felt this way about the film, and because I hope this film sparks more types of films just like it, as the topics discussed in this film are extremely important and not often discussed, specifically within the Black community.

I also included some quotes from the Muñoz reading into my post. In the reading, Muñoz discusses a situation that happened during his childhood, where a family member made fun of him because of his “feminine” walk. I included this in the post, along with audio from a clip of the film where the main character Chiron’s drug-addicted mother suggests to her drug dealer, and Chiron’s father figure, that she can tell Chiron is gay by the way he walks. I slowed down this video clip at the beginning and then rewinded it, as I felt this made the intro more dramatic. I also included another quote from the reading where Muñoz talks about how for queer folks, childhood can be a time of policing and violence, as Chiron experienced much of this throughout his childhood because people because they thought he was gay and because his mother was a crack-addict. Rather than using the audio from the original clip, I used a sad, dramatic instrumental I found on YouTube, as I felt it set the vibe for the rest of the video.