Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins unloaded on President Donald Trump Tuesday night in a profane rant, in front of a star-studded crowd at the annual National Board of Review Awards.
“Literally right now the president is talking about walls and borders. I don’t know how this happened. So I can’t help but talk about the president and borders and all these walls,” Barry Jenkins said, just as President Trump began his nationally televised address advocating for a border wall with Mexico.
“There’s a film being celebrated called ‘Minding the Gap,’ by Bing Liu. Bing Liu and his family emigrated here. The president does not want them here,” the Moonlight director said, before taking direct aim at Trump. “No walls. No borders. Fuck him.”
Jenkins burst onto the mainstream Hollywood scene with his breakout drama Moonlight — about a young black man coming-of-age in Miami — which won three Academy Awards in 2017, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The 39-year-old filmmaker accepted the award for best adapted screenplay Tuesday night for his latest Oscar contender If Beale Street Could Talk.
Nominee for Best Director “Moonlight” Barry Jenkins arrives on the red carpet for the 89th Oscars on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images)
In his prime-time address Tuesday, President Trump said, “Our Southern Border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs – including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl.”
“Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone – 90 percent of which floods across from our Southern Border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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