What does it mean to see and be seen? That is the question at the heart of Nickel Boys. Not just in the nature of the film’s central creative choice to be presented entirely from a first-person perspective, but also in the story of two young Black men navigating life in the Jim Crow–era South, where everything they choose to—or not to—look at carries with it an enormous weight.
For this SOC Creative Spotlight, we are joined by A camera operator Sam Ellison, SOC; Jomo Fray, director of photography; and Nora Mendis, production designer. They discuss this striking, unique film and the ways in which the choice to shoot entirely from a first-person perspective fundamentally changed every aspect of the film’s design and presented a challenge to the camera operator to not just capture a moment, but replicate the very feeling of sight.
Across three different periods of time, we see through the eyes of Elwood Curtis: the life he had with his grandmother, Hattie; the life that he is forced to rebuild for himself as an adult; and the aftermath of an ill-fated car ride that irrevocably alters the course of his life. Nickel Boys is directed by RaMell Ross from a screenplay by Ross and Joslyn Barnes and stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Tayor, Hamish Linklater, and Daveed Diggs.
Watch the conversation here on SOC.org
