Two boys try to endure a brutal reformatory in Director RaMell Ross’s drama, Nickel Boys.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, Ross’s film tells the story of Elwood, a young African American falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to Nickel Academy, a brutal reform school in the Jim Crow South. Clinging to his optimistic worldview, Elwood forms an alliance with Turner, a fellow teen who dispenses fundamental tips for survival.

On October 27, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Ross discussed the making of Nickel Boys during a Q&A moderated by Director Channing Godfrey Peoples (Miss Juneteenth).

During the conversation, Ross spoke about his visual style.

“It's kind of taking an Eastern philosophical approach to the world. Traditionally, when a person has a camera, human beings are the center of it. But to me, human beings are just in the larger world and so people are their environment. And their environment shapes the person. This isn't necessarily about nature/nurture but it is about giving the feeling of viscerality of the real world as a person is in it. And cinema is ripe for anything sensory. As we know, it's the most fun medium to play in in that sense.”

Nickel Boys is Ross’s narrative feature directorial debut. His other directorial credits include an episode of the documentary series Independent Lens, and he was nominated for the Academy Award and the 2019 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for Hale County This Morning, This Evening. He became a DGA member in 2022.