“If you take photography seriously, it leads you to other arts. It led me to film, then film led me to performance, to the Return to Origin project, to sculpture. My love of film and photography hasn’t waned, but it has led me to other things.”
-RaMell Ross, episode 404 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
One week from Oscar Sunday, we’re joined by Nickel Boys director RaMell Ross.
At the top, RaMell describes the formal innovations of the new film (6:44), the naivete that allowed him to make this singular project (8:02), and how photography is shaped by race in ways we don’t consider (12:00). Then, we dive into RaMell’s Virginia upbringing (29:28), the hoop dreams that brought him to Georgetown (29:35), and the “question everything” mindset that took flight in his college years (30:30).
On the back-half, Ross explains the cinematic lineage of his Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (42:25), his aim to portray the American South in a new light (50:26), and why Nickel Boys is just the beginning of this next chapter in Black cinematic history (57:00).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at mail@talkeasypod.com.
Show-notes:
- Watch Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross, in select theaters and on VOD.
- See his documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening.
- Learn more about RaMell’s artwork and photography on his website.
- For more talks, hear our conversations with Ava DuVernay, Richard Linklater, and Lulu Wang.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi.
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