EPISODE I: Nickel Boys Interview with RaMell Ross (2024)

Nickel Boys (2024) is the searing debut feature fiction film of RaMell Ross. After his documentary Hale County, This Morning, This Evening which earned him a Peabody Award and a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards, Ross, in collaboration with Plan B Entertainment and Orion Pictures, has adapted the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning novel penned by Colson Whitehead. The film, shot largely in a dizzying and effective point-of-view perspective, follows the story of two boys, Elwood and Turner, both sent to the segregated reform school of Nickel Academy in Florida, a fictional school evoking those in reality (such as Dozier School for Boys), where scores of children were abused, far from inquisitive eyes and institutional accountability. Through using archival footage from the Jim Crow Era, the film grounds this hauntingly beautiful story in our present, sparking a dialogue that reminds us that these historical accounts of abuse and trauma at their core involved people, people who had dreams, and aspirations, and emotions, as deep and tangible as our very own. TNBFC’s Mojola Akinyemi sat down with Ross to discuss the inspiration behind his mode of filmmaking, and the process that resulted in the final film. Nickel Boys is released into UK cinemas from Friday, January 3rd.