This course studies the films, television work, and literary adaptations of the director and screenwriter, Barry Jenkins. Working with Michael Gillespie's concept of "film blackness," we will discuss how Jenkins navigates the Black lifeworld on screen and the page, asking his viewers to think beyond representation and distinguish "the author function from embodied being." We will work with Jenkins' wide-ranging influences, from Wong Kar-Wai to Claire Denis and Spike Lee. We will pay attention to his use of music and literature, also reading the fiction and drama of James Baldwin, Colson Whitehead, and Tarell Alvin McCraney. This will be a reading-intensive course that will incorporate substantial amounts of film theory. Finally, we will discuss how Jenkins navigates marketability and popular culture in his TV work for The Underground Railroad and Dear White People.