I watched Moonlight last night for the first time and really enjoyed it. Where other best picture-nominated films are overblown with complicated stories and flimsy characters I was most enamored by Moonlight’s simplicity.

I knew some pieces of the story — time jumps, crisis of identity / sexuality within a black community — but was intrigued by how the film’s form and structure was used to depict the emotions of the characters. The film is filled to the brim with gorgeous, long shots with much of the dialogue dubbing multiple points of view unfolding in slow motion.

Here’s a great video from ScreenPrism detailing how it all comes together. The movie says so much with so little, and uses the camera as a means of communicating internal thoughts.

Moonlight’s release started a wave of high-art depictions of young black culture. In ScreenPrism’s video, the director, Barry Jenkins, talks about the flipping the script of showing the same old stories about growing up in poor neighborhoods. Instead Jenkins intended to bring “the arthouse to the hood” instead of the other way around.

Kendrik Lamar, Element.

The same could be said of Kendrik Lamar’s music video for Element, which released the year following Moonlight’s release. Largely inspired by, and frequently referencing, the works of Gordon Parks, Element. unfolds in vignettes both raw and violent, but beautifully framed and composed. It begs the viewer to question what is beautiful and what is real.

Jay-Z, Moonlight

To follow up the debut of Element, Jay-Z released the music video for his track Moonlight. The video depicts the production of a shot-for-shot Friends remake helmed by an all black cast. The video ends with Jerrod Charmichael (cast as Ross Geller) questioning the merits of a show that swaps in diverse actors without updating their context. He exits the set and sits on the bench from the Friends intro, staring at the moon, as the audio replays from the 2016 Oscars incorrectly announcing “La La Land” as the winner for Best Picture.