Filmmaker RaMell Ross has achieved an extraordinary feat this year, earning an Oscar nomination for both a documentary and a feature film. His latest work, Nickel Boys, was nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, following his 2019 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which garnered a nomination for Best Documentary. His ability to excel in both nonfiction and fiction is a rare accomplishment, especially in an industry where the Academy has yet to nominate a documentary for Best Picture.
Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead’s novel, reimagines the story through the first-person perspectives of two teenage boys, Elwood and Turner. This shift from Whitehead’s third-person narration brings a radical and intimate approach to the storytelling, immersing the audience in the characters’ experiences. Ross and his team—cinematographer Jomo Fray and camera operator Sam Ellison—utilize tight camera placements that follow the actors’ movements, enhancing the personal and subjective nature of the film.
Ross’s cinematic style in Nickel Boys recalls elements of his earlier documentary work, particularly in how he disrupts conventional ways of viewing and interpreting Black life. Both Hale County and Nickel Boys reject traditional trauma narratives about Black Americans, instead presenting their subjects with the dignity and complexity of real lives. In Hale County, Ross employed home-movie-like footage of everyday moments—basketball games, family gatherings, and quiet personal reflections—to depict life in Alabama without an overt narrative structure. The result was an exploration of Black life beyond stereotypical portrayals.
A central element of Ross’s approach is his challenge to the idea of an objective lens. Hale County does not offer neutral observations but invites the audience to consider the act of looking itself. In interviews at the time, Ross emphasized the absence of framing in the editing process, opting instead for fleeting moments that prompt reflection. This technique carries over into Nickel Boys, where Ross’s camera not only depicts history but also compels the viewer to consider their own role in observing it.
In both films, Ross deconstructs how images of Black individuals—particularly in the American South—have historically been framed. In Nickel Boys, this is further reinforced by direct addresses to the camera, breaking down the “fourth wall” and demanding that the audience recognize its role in shaping the narrative. At times, documentary footage and archival images are interspersed without clear narrative context, unsettling the audience’s passive viewing habits and making them confront their perceptions of history.
The connection between Ross’s documentary and fiction work is evident in a sequence from Hale County that may have influenced a scene in Nickel Boys. In Hale County, an archival clip from the 1913 film Lime Kiln Club Field Day—featuring Bert Williams in blackface—juxtaposes a modern-day encounter with a plantation house. This blend of the past and present symbolizes the unbroken chain of history that Ross examines in both his works. In Nickel Boys, similar motifs of dirt roads and Southern landscapes punctuate the story of Elwood’s journey to Nickel Academy, echoing Ross’s prior exploration of how history shapes personal and collective memory.
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