Black Panther DP Rachel Morrison to make directorial debut with Barry Jenkins' Flint Strong

By William Hughes | June 20, 2019 | 12:25am

Aux Features Film

Black Panther DP Rachel Morrison to make directorial debut with Barry Jenkins' Flint Strong

Photo: Emma McIntyre

After getting her start in short film and reality television—including a stint as director of photography for MTV’s The Hills—cinematographer Rachel Morrison has become a major name in the world of movie-making of late, having brought her craft to everything from Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station and Black Panther to films like Mudbound (for which she picked up an Oscar nomination) and the neon-colored streets of Dope. Now Morrison is moving from behind the camera to, well, behind the camera, but also in charge, we guess, as Variety reports that she’s teaming up with Barry Jenkins for her directorial debut.

The Moonlight director will write the script on Flint Strong, a dramatized version of Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari’s documentary T-Rex, about Olympic gold-medalist boxer (and Flint, Michigan resident) Claressa Shields. Jenkins was reportedly thinking about directing the film himself, but instead chose to simply produce. Which happily opens us all up to seeing what Morrison—whose other accolades of note include being the first woman ever to be nominated for Best Theatrical Release by the American Society Of Cinematographers—will do with the visual grandeur of Shields’ fights, or the modern devastation afflicting the city she calls home.