Travis Coltrain
Moonlight’s monumental Oscar win over La La Land for Best Picture hit home for this Daily Iowan reporter. Hailing from Miami, I spent most of my youth just blocks away from Liberty City, and even from here in Iowa, I can already see the effect it has had.
Moonlight’s win created a strong wave in Liberty City that will push not only its youth but the youth of the world forward for years. It gave a chance for not only Liberty City but the LGBTQ community to voice real issues in a manner that they couldn’t be silenced.
When Miami is put as a setting in a movie, it’s usually set in South Beach or Downtown, but not with Moonlight. It shed light on a city that was forced into the dark. Liberty City isn’t South Beach or Aventura; it isn’t one of those stereotypical tourist traps you see thousands of people flocking to every year. It’s a simple community.
Liberty City gets a lot of bad rep because of its growing rate of violent crimes and drug use. This makes people think negatively about the community natives. Many believe a violent community will raise a violent person, but that’s untrue. Liberty City is more than just that; it’s a community full of people trying their hardest for their family in whatever way they know how.
While it might be a simple community, it’s filled with endless talented people such as Jenkins and McCraney, who wrote Moonlight’s screenplay. I mean, the best Jerk Chicken I’ve ever had can be found right at Naomi’s in Liberty City, but no one will ever know because they are too afraid to give the city and its dwellers a chance. All around the world, people from inner cities are told to aim lower by society’s judgments. Moonlight changed that; it gave hope. It showed that hard work really does pay off. It showcases that anyone, even someone from an area that is told it’s going nowhere, can reach heights never accomplished before.
Right after Moonlight won, a friend from Miami messaged me telling me about how he really felt he should continue his art, because “no one can tell me what I can and can’t be.” The next day, teachers all across the board were saying how hopeful they were about their dreams. Even some amateur filmmakers here in Iowa City told me that they felt inspired by Moonlight’s win and wanted to have a film that could reach its viewers’ hearts like Moonlight did.
To me, Moonlight has brought on a new shining image of hope that cannot fade. It has lit a fire in millions of hearts that will continue burning into the next generation. Moonlight gave Liberty City and its people a chance to be heard, and they succeeded. Sunday night the world listened, and the community’s cries and cheers were heard.