Fresh Air

Barry Jenkins says filming his new series about an enslaved girl who escapes from a plantation was the most difficult project of his career — and one that made him feel closer to his own ancestors. "It was incredibly difficult, partly because we were standing in places where ... these atrocities had occurred," he says. Jenkins directed 'Moonlight,' which won the 2017 Oscar for Best Picture, as well as the 2018 adaptation of James Baldwin's novel, 'If Beale Street Could Talk.' We talk about depicting the brutality of slavery onscreen, his own family history, and why he wanted to become a filmmaker.