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Barry
Jenkins

Barry Jenkins
Filmmaker
Oakland, CA
2012 USA Fellow

This award was generously supported by Paul and Annette Smith.
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Writer and director Barry Jenkins’s first feature, Medicine for Melancholy (2009), was hailed by The New York Times as one of the best films of the year. It depicts the flirtations between a young African American couple amidst the background of a gentrified San Francisco, offering an alternative to the more usual cinematic depictions of “urban African Americans” amidst gang-related violence. Jenkins has also created four short films.

Portrait photo courtesy David Bornfriend.

  • Artwork by Barry Jenkins
    Remigration, 2011; photo credit David Bornfriend
Artwork by Barry Jenkins