good evening from los angeles. tonight, a special program featuring this year's academy award nominees. this evening we'll highlight oscar nominees from best actress, best supporting actress, best actor, best director, best documentary film and, of course, best picture. we'll also look back on a recent conversation with legend airy documentarian frez riction wiseman who received an hohn arie statute earlier this season for his achieve ments. we're glad you joined us. all of that in just a moment.

we'll see plenty of first time nominees in high profile categories at sunday's academy award ceremony. we start with a look at two of the first timers. first, best actress nominee rooung nega who turned in a beautiful performance as mildred loving in the civil rights era drama "loving". >> well, interestingly enough, the genesis of our film was a documentary called the loving

story that was made for hbo. and she had come across mildred loving's obituary in 2008. that's how i first found out about it. and i went searching for more information about them. i was surprised at how relatively little could be found considering what they achieved. and so she discovered that there was footage from a contemporary documentary which never coalesced for some reason. and so she wrote this footage into a brilliant documentary. and when i was approached to audition for the film, they sent me. and absolutely fell in love with this couple. absolutely. i challenge anybody to watch this documentary and not fall

for them. >> yeah. how cool is it that something that you were already interested in, that is to say american civil rights history ends up being a role that you star in? >> it's extraordinary. and i feel extraordinarily privileged and grateful. i think when you start out, you know, wanting to act, it's not just for sort of personal gratification. it's about connecting to people and hopefully contributing positively to the evolution of the world. humanity. and so, you know, i think that you want to use your tools and your voice to contribute to your conversation and maybe, you know, in this instance shining a light on the couple that really should be celebrated. and it's not just a black story. it's not just an american story. it's a story for the world.

it's fortune verse. and to be able to share that and be part of that, it's, you know, it's the pinnacle. >> best supporting actress nominee naomi harris almost turned down her role in "moonlight" which received some of best reviews of any film from 2016. >> i read somewhere where you swore to never play a character like this. >> i did. >> so you saw something that convinced you otherwise. tell me what the process was when you saw the screen. >> so when i read it, i was just moved emotionally. it made me cry. you know, it made me cry several time. i deeply connected with it. you know, i didn't grow up in liberty city. i'm british. but again, it was that universal message within it that really connected and moved me. i just thought it is such a beautiful script. it has to be told. >> what was it about this character specifically that you wanted to connect to? >> i really didn't want to

connect with the characters to be quite honest with you. i really had issues about taking a crack at it. you know, my mom is a shining example for me. she's always been my role model to me. she such a strong powerful intelligent capable woman. i don't see enough of those women represent ond screen. so i always thought, you know, an as actor, i don't have much power. but the place where i do have power is in my choices. i'm going to make sure my choices reflect positive images of black women. and then i get this crack addict role. there say lot of resistance within me. but what really changed my mind was then speaking to the director. he xplanld that he wanted to tell his story and his story necessarily involved of that his mother. and his mother was a crack addict. so i thought here for first time is someone who is emotionally invested in ensuring that this character has a full complexity and full hue money take she

deserves. you know, she scared me. and i think the interesting thing for me was that i had to learn that i was standing in judge ment of her. i was standing in judge ment of her addiction. i couldn't get my head around it. it wasn't until i stopped judging her and i just had allowed myself to really have compassion for her journey that she revealed herself to me. and that she came out in the recesses of my imagination. >> she is not new to the best supporting actress category. she took home the oscar five years ago for her work in the film "the help." this year she is nominated in "hidden figures." she is called a super hero. how fast did you and how far did you fall in loving dorothy? >> i fell in love with dorothy vaughn when i got this script. i met on it two years ago. >> right. >> and when i got -- it was just a proposal at the time and then a few months later i got a

script and i fell in love with dorothy vaughn. i mean, to have the mechanical inclination, to have an engineer's brain wrapped in this quality woman who is a mom, a god fearing woman, who was existing in a time when she was viewed as a second class citizen but that didn't bother her. she still did the work and contributed in such a major way. who wouldn't want to play her? she's a super hero to me. you fwhee? we need the images. young boys and girls need to know that they possess the inner workings to change the world. you don't need a cape and superpowers. your brain, it all starts here and how you perceive yourself and your place in the world. and i think i would have dreamed a different type of dream. i'm a creative. but i would have dreamed a different type of dream for myself. but i do believe everything happens for a reason. we are now meant to propel the

story forward. for the future generation of young women in stem. >> best actor nominee for a man intent of raising his kids outside of the mainstream world in "captain fantastic." he discussed his character and the film's political relevant vancy. >> what say you about the kind of father that he is? >> yeah. it is an extreme case of conscious parenting. like he's there 24/7 for his kids. that's undeniable. i heard one brief description by a journalist saying well he seems mostly well intentioned and he's also likeable but he's insane. i wouldn't agree with. that i think -- it was beautiful script. beautiful movie. and i think that the foundation of that -- this particular family unit is not that radical. because it's based on total

honesty, constant curiosity and mutual respect. when the movie starts out, you think well it's some kind of utopian liberal or left wing fantasy about living off the grid and all that. and these are going to be the good guys and we're going to follow them through thick and thin against conservative ideas and people and i didn't become that at all. it's not condoned completely. it's not condemned. and the grandparents and more conservative, you know, people that they meet, there say meeting of the minds. there is some compromises made and there is communication. and people adapt. and he learns to at first as a parent, when he realizes that he messed up, he thinks, well, everything i've done is stupid. and it's wrong. i quit. basically. and then he's convince the by his kids to rethink and maybe we can make some adjustments and

change. and that's -- whether it's a couple, family or country, that's what you got do. if you want to co-exist, you have to give and take. i think it's not a political movie. it's not an ideological movie. i think in some ways it talks about exactly what the very real problem we have is, you know, right now in the country. >> oscar winning actor denzel washington received the seventh academy award nomination for his role in the film adaptation of "fences." he is star and director of the proje project. >> when did you know that you wanted to or were going to do this as a film? when did you kmilt yourself to that? >> when they made me. scott ruden, one of the producers asked me seven years ago. and i read the screen play. i realized i can't read the play. i read the play. it said troy maxen, 53.

i was 55 when i read it. when i saw it in '8 owe0s, i'm locking at it through troy. but when i read it and said 53, i said i better hurry up. so i called scott rudy and said twint do the play. >> i asked that because ways curious about how much thought time you put into -- how much time you had to wrestle with what you wanted to look like on film. >> well, you know, film making is the collaborative process. you put some of best people around you, directal photography, editors and all work together. you want to inspire them. i know enough, i've been around long enough to know that i don't think i know everything. so i put the best around me. let them do what they do. i have to make the final decision. but just left the best do what they do. let viola go. let stephen henderson go.

vie ole yashgs maybe we should -- >> you are directing. >> and i did direct. but the smartest thing i did as a director was to take michael teague and stephen and viola and who am i leaving out -- the guy who's did it, you know, the core group that did it on broadway. take it to film. >> the number of black oscar nominees for best director have reached four with the addition of barry jenkins for "moonlight" this year. his coming to age tale was praised adds a masterpiece. monday light is nominated for best picture and best adaptive screen play. >> i also heard from countless people and these are not cinematographer that's belong to the union. but just people who go to see film who just in their own way are trying to -- tried to share with me how much they love the way the film was shot. so to a lay person watching this

conversation, what trick, what do you do to pull us in regarding the way you shot this film? >> yechs. the biggest trick i'll say if i tell you about doing a movie with a poor young boy, you think you know what that film looks like. it is a very drab social realist documentary fill. we want this to be rooted in the consciousness of our main character. he has a huge interior life. he's not expressing himself verbally as much as the other characters around him. the scene with naomi hair nis the courtyard. we want to allow ourselves the freedom to go to slow motion. look our character right in the eye. there are so many places where there are things that defy expectations of the setup of the scene. that's because we're in the interior mind of the character. another aspect is film as a medium, you know, it's only been around for 120 years. it hasn't changed much. film emotion was calibrted to

photograph white skin. those are the bhoem could afford to buy the kodak cameras on the weekends. and so we have all the lights in this room. we also put powder on people. and in this film where i grew up, i remember black folks sweating. i remember the skin replenishing itself and being moist. so when this film, the makeup person is told no powder, only oil. they got grape seed oil, shea butter, all this stuff, to allow the skin to reflect the light. reflect the light. and so i think our visual approach because it's coming from my memory and what felt like to live this experience and also we're allowing ourselves to be rooted in the consciousness of the character. it arrives fresh and different. i think when people see the images, they feel like they're seeing things for the first time. they haven't seen it told in this way. the visuals have a lot to do with that. >> tell me more about your journey professionally for how you got the opportunity or took the opportunity to make this masterpiece. >> you know, it starts off with film school.

i'm a public schoolkid the i grew up like a kid in this movie. this is the big public school in the state of florida. can you go to if you have a certain gpa. i went there on a free tuition scholarship. i paid for it by the florida lottery. >> shoutout to the florida lottery. >> yes. and, you know, the state of florida, you know, back then i think it was run a bit differently. state of florida wanted to drist film industry. so they built a film school. they invited florida kid into that program. it was a beautiful situation. everyone had the equipment, stock, all the different things. so i got into film school. i went. dinlt know anything about it. over the course two of years, kind of got good at it. i had a brief moment where i wasn't sure if i could do it. i grew up poor, black, mom addicted to crack. i'm not good at this because people like me just aren't meant to be good at. this and then, of course, over the course of three years i did the work. i taught myself, you know, how to shoot my own film. instead of watching what i thought was the best, i trained

myself on how to do. this i moved out here. i worked that one company, harpo films for two years. assistant to darnell martin and six years later, i made' very low budget 13,0$13,000 dlsfilm. it got me put on. i got signed at caa. plan b saw the film. i tried to work on it. didn't quite work out. and then six years after that first film, i wrote this. and i worked at this film festival in telluride, been there since 2002. i used to make popcorn, usher, clean toilets. i did everything. now i'm introducing films and programming short films. i write the screen play. i come back and wrote this movie in belgium. i fly from brussels to telluride. there say movie called "toy and the slave." they say, barry jenkins. we know you. what you are up to? i said actually i just adopted this play called a moonlight

black bliz in blue. and now we have eight academy award nominations. now steve read that. >> celebrated documentarian received an honorary oscar for lifetime achievement. he joined us back in november just days after receiving his award to discuss his unique way of filming documentaries. >> i started making movies a few years after the technological advances were invented. it made it possible for the camera to tape record it at the same speed. so you weren't -- didn't have to be connect bid a cable. and so it opened up the world. anything could be a subject adds long as it was available light. and the whole idea is to film events as they occur unstaged. and edit them in such a way that people who didn't have the privilege to be in a place as i did for a couple months shooting will -- can feel that they're present and observing and

participating in what is going on. and i present my point of view indirectly by the way i edit and the structure of the film. >> to the extent that you say documentaries have some fiction element to them. >> well, that's a good question. i think certainly the structure of a documentary. because i have to come up with the dramatic narrative structure. >> yeah. >> but otherwise it's a series of isolated shots. so that's -- i mean that's the way i do that is the standard novelistic fictional techniques. and i have to build dramatic events. i need silences after a particularly startling scene. i don't good eat startling scene. i have to think about the relationship between the beginning of the movie and end of the movie. the shorthanded way i describe what i do, my movies, is the that they're novelistic, not journalist

journalistic. and i try -- i'm interested in complexity. i try not to simplify the material to suit an ideological point of view. because i've never find an ideology to explain wide variety of human behavior that i've run across in making movies. >> it seems to me that when i think of documentarians and the ones i have seen ofrt years and people like the documentarians i've interviewed, they do have a particular point of view that they want to get across with the documentaries that they produce. you tell me that yours are more novelistic. >> i think my movies all have a point of view. but they're not easily summarized. the movie represents my point of view. if i could summarize it in 25 words or less, i couldn't have made the movie. in the same way, i again, i draw it from novels. if the novelist tells me directly at the beginning of a novel what his attitude is towards the characters, i'm not interested in reading it. >> right.

>> but it's if the novelist leaves it up to me to under on the basis of the dialogue and action what to think about the characters, then i'm interested. that's what i try to do. >> for first time four black directors are among the nominees in the best documentary feature category. three of them made film thatdea with race and race relations in america. the haitian director envisioned the book james baldwin never finished. >> to me, what makes so it brilliant is i have never seen a film from beginning to end that are only the words of the subject. every word in this film is baldwin's. >> first of all, i knew this film was impossible film. you know, to decide from the get go, stick to baldwin words. nothing else. i wanted to -- >> no talking. >> no commentary. >> it's all baldwin. >> exactly. to confront it with the baldwin

words and confront baldwin without protests and i know that was schematically complicated. i knew that also i would need a voice. and that's where samuel l. jackson's voice came into play. and so we have a great team of researcher, of activists who work on. that but also something that was important too, because he was speaking about stuff that i knew, i grew up in this. so i had to add all my own mythology of 30 years of growing up with american cinema. so when baldwin is speaking about those film, i have seen most of them. i work on this fim as i would work on a narrative, as i would write a screen play. you know, once visit words, i know that was the fundamentals of everything. but then that's where your experience, your artistic ideas come in and also time.

we needed time. so i knew i had to produce this film. nobody -- it stayed where we're always behind us and telling us go. just make the movie. don't worry about us. it's not about money. you know, normally that never happens. to have access to the whole body of work, you know, publish, unpublish materials, letters, private photos. i knew with this i better come up with a great film. you know, i have no choice. >> pullser prize winning journalist and his son owen joined us just days ago to discuss the oscar nominated documentary, it chronicles the strug wells owen's autism. it is a beautiful story about the power of movies and shaping who we are and who we become. >> do you have a favorite disney movie? >> i love them all. >> yeah?

>> it's hard to pick one. >> hard to pick one. >> it's like picking a favorite child. you don't want to offend any of the others. >> yeah. >> is there one that you watch the most? >> what would you say some of your favorites? >> the big four, little mermaid, beauty and the beast, aladdin and the lion king. >> i'm a dumbo guy. >> i love dum bchl o. >> do you like him? >> yeah. >> dumbo is an amazing movie. what is the big idea for dumbo? >> inner ears. >> what is your inner ears? >> my art work. it's the compensatory abilities. >> yeah. >> the thing that makes dumbo different is his what? >> his ears. >> and his greatest what? >> strength. >> allows him to soar. >> i have to come to your house one day. i'm inviting myself to dinner so i can sit and be a part of the conversations. >> yeah. it really is interesting to see

what he takes from these films that so many of us even miss. >> yeah. that is the power of the story of life. the viewers sit there and say how can someone who is considered disabled -- look, owen seems like one in a million, he is one of millions. how can he see so much more of the movies than i do? it reverses the equation. so people say different but not last. let's look at. that different and greater in areas of strength. that changes the way people see a world of folks like owen and in a way them seflselves too. >> are you excited about going to the academy awards? >> no. i'm not an actor. i'm an artist being celebrated. >> i can't do no better than that. that's it. thank you for watching. >> you're welcome. >> keep the faith. >> he's gone. >> owen has left the building.

owen has left the building. >> like i said, i can't do any better than that. that's our show for tonight. we hope you enjoyed our special academy awards program. the oscars will, of course, air this sunday night on abc. thank you for watching and as always, keep the faith. >> hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me for a conversation about donald trump's address to the joint session of congress. david from, that's next time. we'll see you then.

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