Moonlight trailer: Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe star in indie drama

Take your first look at what promises to be one of the real indie gems of this coming fall movie season. Director Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is about three phases in the life of a man named Chiron, chronicling the struggles he is experiencing with both his sexuality and the people in his life while growing up in Miami.

Jenkins is best known for his 2008 film Medicine for Melancholy, which garnered three Independent Spirit Award nominations, and caught the eye of Brad Pitt, whose Plan B Productions produced Moonlight in partnership with the blazing hot distributor A24 (Ex Machina, Room, Amy, The Lobster). And Jenkins, who adapted Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, assembled a top-notch cast, as you can tell from the film’s first trailer (above).

The ensemble cast includes Mahershala Ali (House of Cards, The Hunger Games), Andre Holland (The Knick), Naomie Harris (28 Days Later, Spectre), Ashton Sanders (Straight Outta Compton), Trevante Rhodes (HBO’s upcoming Westworld), and six-time Grammy Award nominated singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe (Some Nights) in her film debut.

Moonlight is in the main lineup of the New York Film Festival (which begins Sept. 30) and will also screen at the Toronto Film Festival before being released in theaters on Oct. 21.