Liberty City Filmmaker Barry Jenkins Interviewed on PBS

Miami-born filmmaker Barry Jenkins has been featured on PBS for his 2008 film Medicine for Melancholy, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and at Miami's own Borscht Film Festival. Although the film is based in San Francisco, Jenkins grew up in Miami's...

By Amanda McCorquodale

January 27, 2010

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "19274298",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17482312",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482310",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482313",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Miami-born filmmaker Barry Jenkins has been featured on PBS for his 2008 film Medicine for Melancholy, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and at Miami's own Borscht Film Festival. Although the film is based in San Francisco, Jenkins grew up in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood and was a running back at Northwestern Senior High, a school that has been labeled a "dropout factory" by Johns Hopkins University and where only 21 percent of the students met reading skills standards last year. (Sorta makes us think of the recent photo book I Think I Can, I Think I Can that's dedicated to plants growing in seemingly hostile conditions.)

We hope Jenkins will make a love poem of a movie about his hometown of Miami one of these days. Though in his Medicine for Melancholy, actor Wyatt Cenac (now of The Daily Show fame) says "San Francisco's beautiful. But you shouldn't have to be upper/middle class to be a part of that." Perhaps it is about Miami after all.

KEEP NEW TIMES FREE... Since we started New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.