Nickel Boys is an example of what’s possible within the filmmaking medium. The story, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Nickel Boys, is grounded in the historic Dozier School, a devastatingly abusive reform school that operated in the Jim Crow south. The subject matter is already impactful, to say the least. Director RaMell Ross leaned on his background in photography and documentary filmmaking to find truly innovative ways to bring audiences into this horrifying reality.