Razing Liberty Square / Moonlight

In-person: Q&A in-between films with Moonlight co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney and Razing Liberty Square director Katja Esson.

This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series (Dis)placement: Fluctuations of Home.

Razing Liberty Square (2023)
As rising seas threaten Miami’s coast, developers turn inland to Liberty Square — a historically Black neighborhood and the South’s first segregated public housing — sitting 12 feet above sea level. Set where Moonlight was filmed, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Katja Esson’s “exposé of cynical impulses and failed promises” (Chicago Tribune) captures the six-year fight of residents battling displacement under a $300 million city “revitalization” plan. The film offers a timely warning and tribute to those refusing to bend to climate gentrification.

DCP, color, 83 min. Director: Katja Esson.

Set in Miami’s Liberty City, Moonlight was adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play about growing up Black and gay in a neighborhood marked by hardship and care. Also raised in Liberty City, filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning film captures Chiron’s quiet, aching journey to selfhood across three chapters. Moonlight honors Miami’s textures and contradictions — its emotional power inseparable from Liberty City’s geography — and now stands as a vital record of this historic community now reshaped by climate gentrification and displacement. DCP, color, 111 min.

Director: Barry Jenkins. Screenwriters: Tarell Alvin McCraney, Barry Jenkins. With: Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Naomie Harris.