Into the Camera
We watch as characters look directly into the camera during the film. When they do this, the imagery created translates to complete vulnerability. While they are doing so to connect with another character, or themselves, the purpose is to expose the audience to the vulnerability, the heart of each character.
Friendship
We watch as Daniel and Fonny reunite for the first time on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. Jenkins shoots them from a low angle and the imagery gives a poetic quality to their embrace as we see the sun rimmed around Daniel and a church brimming up behind Fonny. The imagery shows who these men truly are: Daniel brings light wherever he goes, and Fonny is a man who stands for something greater than himself.
Armor
Sharon is seen putting on her wig, getting ready to meet Victoria. She primps and tries to get it right but in the end all she sees in the mirror is someone who isn't her. The imagery of Sharon looking directly into the camera and taking her wig off reveals that she is at the end of what she has to give, and whatever is left cannot be fake.
Sharing a Smoke
Fonny shares cigarettes with his friend, Daniel whom he hasn't seen in some time. We learn that Daniel was in prison. He was made to plead guilty to grand theft auto, something he didn't do in order to get a plea deal for having marijuana. Jenkins' camera pans slowly between the two as Daniel confesses the horrors he witnessed in prison perpetrated by white men. The lighting is dark and has the appearance of a confessional as the two men share the deepest parts of their experiences with one another, and the imagery assists in the depth of what they are sharing.
