Color, Lighting, and Powerful Motifs: The Evocative Visual Design in Moonlight Isabella Escalona College

A tender but powerful coming-of-age story, the film Moonlight chronicles the life of Chiron, a young African American boy living in a rough Miami neighborhood during the city’s notorious crack epidemic. Bullied throughout his youth, Chiron feels like an outcast because of his sexuality. He is also troubled by his deteriorating home life when his mother falls into drug addiction. However, Chiron finds solace in a drug dealer named Juan who has a profound impact on the course of Chiron’s life. The film is packed with gorgeous scenery from start to finish, the most breathtaking of which being when Juan teaches young Chiron - nicknamed “Little” at the time - how to swim. Using color, water, and the moonlight as symbolic expressions of vulnerability alongside strategic lighting, costumes and set design, the scene conveys Little’s struggle to grapple with his identity and sexuality. Moonlight tells the captivating story of a young man’s journey into manhood and the cultivation of his self-awareness, and with its evocative visual design, the swimming scene reinforces the film’s key themes of intimacy, masculinity, and self-discovery.

Throughout Moonlight, and particularly in the swimming scene, the color blue appears to function as...