Moonlight
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- 2016
- Year
Chiron grows up in Liberty City, Miami, small enough that everyone calls him Little. School means being picked on, and home means Paula, his mother, deep in addiction. Hiding from the boys chasing him, he meets Juan, a dealer who turns out to be the first adult willing to take him as he is. The story breaks into three chapters, childhood, adolescence and adulthood, following how Chiron buries what he feels for his friend Kevin and, years later, lets it surface. Barry Jenkins directed and Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote the story it came from. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on 2 September 2016, opened in the United States on 21 October, and took three prizes at the 89th Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali as Juan.
Two of this film's Miami locations are still where the camera found them, the beach on Virginia Key where Juan teaches Little to swim and Jimmy's Eastside Diner where Kevin works the kitchen. The Liberty Square row houses at the centre of the story have been coming down in phases since 2015, so less of what is on screen survives each year, and the Royal Castle burger stand where Juan feeds Little closed for good in late 2025. The diner runs 6.30am to 4pm, which makes it the first meal of the day, with the beach after it.
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Filming Locations
Historic Virginia Key Beach Park 4020 Virginia Beach Drive Miami Florida
Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, on Virginia Key just off Miami. This is the sand where Juan holds Little up in the water and teaches him to swim. In May 1945 seven activists waded in at the whites-only Baker's Haulover Beach, and on 1 August that year this beach opened as a county park for Black residents. It declined once segregation ended in the early 1960s, sat closed for roughly two decades, and reopened on 22 February 2008. It is run today as an ecological and historical preserve, so the water is for wading rather than swimming out.
Jimmy's Eastside Diner 7201 Biscayne Boulevard Miami Florida
Jimmy's Eastside Diner at 7201 Biscayne Boulevard. The closing scene, in which the grown Chiron finds Kevin and sits down across from him while Kevin cooks for him, was shot here. The production left the room as it was instead of dressing it. The diner has been on the same corner since 1968 and opens every day from 6.30am to 4pm.
Miramar High School Miramar Florida
Miramar High School in Miramar, Broward County, Florida. The scene where the teenage Chiron finally snaps in class after years of bullying was shot at this school. It sits well outside Miami proper, so it does not fold into one route with the other two. Classes run there, so you are looking at the building and the field from the street rather than going in.