TIFF 2016

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There are so many amazing TIFF moments to celebrate so here are just a few I love👌🏻

What’s it like to be a young boy on the drug-filled streets of Miami without friends, without family, without hope? As cliques begin to feign superiority by ganging up on the weak to prove themselves hard enough for what’s coming, Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert) — or  “Little” as they call him — can do nothing but struggle to survive. So who would have thought the one man to show kindness would be the king of the very drug holes his bullies seek to rise up within? In a city where masculinity is cracking skulls, calling names, and pulling guns, Juan (Mahershala Ali) gives a sweet smile and helping hand to a runt in need. This isn’t a play for recruitment either. It’s a beautifully honest moment of human compassion.

It’s not the only display of inclusion shone to Chiron during Barry Jenkins‘ triptych through time entitled Moonlight. Just a few years later the now teenage boy (played by Ashton Sanders)—who rejects his former nickname—is perhaps more lost than ever. Still picked on in school, neglected at home thanks to a junkie for a mother (Naomie Harris‘ Paula), and unable to stand his ground with an identity in constant flux, life provides a friend. Also caught between two worlds, Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) hacks adolescence by constantly changing into the person that those he comes in contact with want. He can be himself around Chiron, supplying a glimmer of hope. But depending on who approaches next, it can all fall apart in the blink of an eye.