by Darnell Walker-Jones
If you want to know what 16th-century Italians felt like seeing a painting by Michelangelo for the first time, watch Nickel Boys. My university, Florida A&M University, hosted a screening of Director RaMell Ross’s latest film, Nickel Boys, at the local IMAX theater, followed by a panel discussion, with Ross as one of the speakers. I had seen the trailer a couple of weeks prior, but it left me with more questions than answers, leading me to discover the film is an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Nickel Boys. The book tells the story of a young Black boy, Elwood Turner, who attends a reform school (based on the Florida School for Boys) in Jim Crow-era Florida. I had written an essay on the Florida School for Boys during my first year, so I was excited to visualize what I had spent hours researching and formatting citations for on a screen. The day of the screening came, and the movie was phenomenal. During the film, I wrote down several questions I had planned to ask in my journal. I texted everyone I knew and told them to add it to their “”2025 movies” note. The panel discussion was limited to two questions from the audience, as it was about 10 p.m. and the theater was closing. A large crowd, as expected after seeing a potential Best Motion Picture nominee, formed around Ross in the theater lobby. I needed to get these questions answered. I didn’t want the pressure of having the conversation limited by a group of other people waiting behind me. I waited for about an hour. The lights in the theater went out. I waited outside by the door for him to pass. Everyone was locked out of the theater and headed to their cars. Ross made his way to his own car. Now was my chance.
DARNELL: Hey Mr. Ross sorry to keep you out in the cold. I had a list of questions I wrote down and wanted to ask during the film.
RAMELL: Yeah of course go ahead I got time.
DARNELL: I watched your New Yorker interview where you discussed, like, the most haunting scene.
RAMELL: Oh yeah, yeah. That came out already?
DARNELL: Yeah it was uploaded last night I believe, and when I was watching it, you’re talking about how, the actress who played Nana was kind of new to the fact that she would have to act without having the ability to physically touch someone or look them in the eye. So I was wondering, did you notice that same kind of adaptability when it came to the two actors who played Elwood and Turner?
RAMELL: Yeah. It was easier for them because they had each other. Mhmm. You know, like, they were constantly in dialogue and, like, they exist over the course of the film, but Aunjanue (Nana) only has so many scenes. So she felt, I think, just an additional isolation.
DARNELL: Gotcha.
RAMELL: But everyone adapted.
DARNELL: And I also wanted to know was there a reason for not having, or maybe it was just like a personal choice because, of course, it’s called Nickel Boys so we’re gonna focus on the boys at Nickel. But was there a reason Aunjanue didn’t have, like, her own POV perspective?
RAMELL: Yeah. It was just a decision about how to make the film as powerful as possible. DARNELL: Mhmm.
RAMELL: Once we decided to do point of view. Because it’s an element of dealing with the audience’s newness to even viewing a film that way. And the more people that we jumped around to, the more people are gonna be taken out of the film.
DARNELL: Yeah.
RAMELL: Because it’s already hard to get in. You know? And it’s just more beautiful if it’s only Elwood and Turner. Because if they can only see each other then that’s just, like, a philosophical thing. You know?
DARNELL: Of course. That’s so good to hear. There was a scene where they were moving the bed frame.
RAMELL: Mhmm.
DARNELL: And then the old man was, like, “When shall we rest?”
RAMELL: Yeah.
DARNELL: And I was wondering, like, what was your decision for including that or incorporating that into the film?
RAMELL: What do you think?
DARNELL: From when I was watching it, I think my take was that he’s older and he’s experienced a lot, of course. And so he sees these two black boys. He connects on like, that relatability, and he taps on who we find out was Turner. He taps Turner on the shoulder. It’s just like, I would say it’s the same feeling as, like, you see another black man walking down the street and you give him the nod.
RAMELL: Yeah. Yeah.
DARNELL: So it’s kind of like that connectability, like, we’re in this together and will this ever end? But also, they mentioned that someone, like, passed away in the house, I believe. So he also could’ve just been, like, tired.
RAMELL: Yeah. See, I like that, non assurance that you have or, like, thinking that it can be both or two different things because in that moment, you know how, depending on what you’re going through in your life, what someone says takes on different meaning and different power. Right? Like, if you had just lost your dog and someone makes some comment, it means something, and if you didn’t lose your dog because you have a new context for understanding the world. And so when you have that type of trauma, we believe, like, it just it colors every interpretation.
DARNELL: Yeah.
RAMELL: Like, there’s nothing that someone can’t say to you. “Man, I’m gonna go to the beach” and you’re just like, boy, I would love to be able to go to the beach, but I’m, like, too wrecked. You know? Like, it always reflects back to that trauma. And so that was a moment for us to point to that duality Mhmm. And then also maybe even speak for the Dozier boys, you know, them being, like, when is this over? When do we get to rest?
DARNELL: It was also cool because last year I wrote an essay on the Dozier School For Boys. My freshman year. And when I was writing about it, I was looking at the research and looking at the White House. And when I saw them in the film, like, it was just kind of interesting visualizing it.
RAMELL: Mhmm.
DARNELL: Because in my head, of course, I have images and the pictures that I’ve seen in photos. But when it came to your perspective, it was, it kinda matched mine.
RAMELL: Oh, yeah?
DARNELL: What I had in mind when it came to what went on there and, like, how everything looked.
RAMELL: That’s cool.
DARNELL: So at the end of the movie, there was the use of the song Tezeta.
RAMELL: Yeah.
DARNELL: Which I have in my playlist, and I was wondering why you picked that song to kinda end it o?
RAMELL: I don’t know why that song works. But I heard that song while we were writing, and, like, I imagined the montage. Just, like, did. And it’s impossible to explain, but it just, it does something unexpected to the story. Like, it’s a powerfully kind of happy and somber. It fluctuates. So it just works. You know?
DARNELL: Yeah I got that vibe as well. Thank you so much for speaking with me and I’m looking forward to seeing your future work.
RAMELL: Of course man. Thank you.
Darnell Walker-Jones is currently a Broadcast Journalism student at Florida A&M. Growing up, he felt a natural pull towards the creative space, as his father was a writer for children’s television. Darnell would watch with wonder as his father created amazing stories. He picked up his first camera, a Canon Rebel T3i, at the age of 16 and began making highlight reels for his school’s soccer team. He became more serious about filmmaking during his senior year, deciding to create a passion project: a short documentary focused on the visibility of the universe from his hometown. During the summer of 2023, he traveled to Ghana. In Accra, he created his first international documentary focused on the livelihoods of scrap workers. The ability to curate and explore interesting themes and stories has given him opportunities he never could have imagined. He is the recipient of the 2024 Sports Emmys HBCU Production Grant.