‘I’m not an activist; I’m an artist’: Barry Jenkins speaks at Chapman

Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins spoke to students and faculty in Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts for a master class Feb. 24. Photo courtesy of Bella Calliva

In a Dodge College of Film and Media Arts master class Feb. 24, I had the opportunity to tell my favorite director Barry Jenkins that my favorite film of all time, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” was a masterpiece. 

As my palms glistened with sweat and legs trembled in anticipation, I unmuted myself on Zoom and stuttered out the praise to a calm Jenkins. With a smile of appreciation, he looked up at his computer camera and uttered a soft “Thank you.”

With that humility, Jenkins, the Academy Award-winning director of “Moonlight,” captivated the nearly 600 in attendance at Dodge College’s latest master class Feb. 24. As a Black male director in the industry, he shared his trials and triumphs through simple storytelling — a medium he’s long been familiar with as a former creative writing major. 

“Filmmakers from certain backgrounds are expected to make films about identity,” Jenkins said. “But the flip side is that it can discourage people that have many other meaningful ideas from making other films.”

Jenkins’ stories, such as describing scenes that were improvised on the set of “Moonlight,” kept audience members like junior screen acting major Aiden Carere intrigued. 

“All the anecdotes and details ended up having a lot of value and were so specific to his individual experiences,” Carere said. 

Although Jenkins’ films often express personal stories of being Black in America that speak to the larger movement of social change, he said that when he’s making his art, he has to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, he’s simply a storyteller. 

“I have to draw the line,” Jenkins said. “I’m not an activist; I’m an artist. There are people who do much more potent work than the stories I’m telling … It’s something I always have to be aware of, but I also have to make my choices.”

Calista Kirk, a sophomore broadcast journalism and documentary major, told The Panther that Jenkins’ insight made the master class the most memorable out of any held previously for her. 

“He talked about his experiences of being a Black man in the industry, which offered a lot of insight to other people of color who are at Chapman,” Kirk said. “He didn’t try to make the industry seem glamorous and shared the importance of making connections.”

Throughout the event, Jenkins emphasized the fluidity and versatility of the filmmaking industry. He told the audience he had a budget of just $13,000, a five-person crew and 15 days to shoot his first feature film, 2008’s “Medicine for Melancholy.”

“I didn’t have much to work with, but that’s the beauty of filmmaking. We all start with an empty frame,” Jenkins said. “The world is generally beautiful. If you point the camera in the right direction, you’re going to see something beautiful.”