Another Young Couple — borne out of a camera test for If Beale Street Could Talk, James and I asked my friends Essence and Jihaari, newly transplanted to LA to allow us into their home for an afternoon tea about their lives and loves, apart and together. We were migrating to the Alexa 65 for Beale Street and wanted to see for ourselves how that large-format sensor would affect intimate portraiture within lived spaces… in particular the faces and spaces of Black folk. These camera tests in real spaces have been a process that have served us well; on The Underground Railroad we didn’t film a young couple but rather our actors, footage that ultimately ended up spread throughout the show. In the similarly named film on this page, A Young Couple, we wanted to test the rig we used on our first feature, Medicine For Melancholy, under ideal conditions for the day if and when we needed to use the set-up for a follow-up feature. By the time Moonlight came around, our budget had grown from from 15k to 1.5 million and the Alexa rendered our Panasonic HVX obsolete. And yet the short lives on, a sister to the one here filmed in 2017 in the run up to the Beale Street shoot. It’s been so long that I’ve lost the actual RAW footage, so what you find here doesn’t contain the full spectrum of what the kit is capable of, but… it was lovely to see this footage again and reconnect with Essence and J, who’ve only grown in their lives together — the film is dedicated to their daughter, Ozzie, three now but a soul of the future in the moment’s captured here. Watching it, I’m struck by how open and honest Jihaari and Essence are. There’s a way they have with one another that they extend to us, to the watchers and the listeners, the few of us there in the room welcomed into their space. I remember the day vividly and I’m so glad I get to share it with you. Much love to them and you and anybody else out there who needs it. And, of course, Happy Valentines Day Barry

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