If Beale Street Could Talk

Directed by BARRY JENKINS

Starring KIKI LAYNE, STEPHAN JAMES, REGINA KING

Released 8 FEBRUARY

“Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the black neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy.”
- James Baldwin

isty eyed and enveloped in the soulful cover of ‘My Country Tis of Thee’ that plays over the end credits of , I was swept up into a vision. I imagined Jimmy in St Paul de Vence at his typewriter, knowing that no amount of distance can quell the calls from home. And so he wrote and wrote, connecting himself to the smells and sounds of the Harlem in which he had come of age. I happened to be miles away from the City myself, also in France, missing my family. Much in the way writing ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ became a portal