Clement Virgo: BROTHER, Returning to Film, and Presenting Masculinity

07/26/23 • 30 min

Jared Milrad interviews writer, director, and producer Clement Virgo about his new film, BROTHER, a poetic adaptation of David Chariandy’s novel of the same name. Elegiac in its unfolding, the film reveals the intimacies of Francis (Aaron Pierre) and Michael (Lamar Johnson), sons of Caribbean immigrants facing questions of masculinity, identity, and family amidst Toronto’s budding and buzzing hip-hop scene. Clement opens up about his return to feature filmmaking after a period of episodic directing (including episodes of BILLIONS, EMPIRE, and GREENLEAF), his journey as a young filmmaker, and exploring themes of vulnerability, othered-ness, and the pressure for young men to mask themselves under societal notions of masculinity.

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