Barry Jenkins to direct film about choreographer Alvin Ailey
Jun 4, 2019 | 7:30 AM
NEW YORK — Barry Jenkins will direct a film based on the life of choreographer Alvin Ailey.
A spokesperson for Fox Searchlight on Monday confirmed that the studio is developing the project, with the “Moonlight” filmmaker directing. Jenkins last helmed the Oscar-nominated James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
Raised in segregated rural Texas, Ailey became a pioneering choreographer, dancer and director who helped popularize modern dance. He died in 1989 at the age of 58 from AIDS-related complications. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
