The Open Ears Project - Episode Twelve: On Finding Your Truth

CLEMENCY BURTON HILL: You’re listening to the Open Ears Project and it’s day twelve.

[Music - Little’s Theme from the movie “Moonlight” by Nicholas Britell]

LEE HILL: Music is a universal language that we can all understand. And hearing this helps me. It just sort of, it brought to life things that I couldn't really put into words. And I think that is what music often does. 

I'm Lee Hill. I am a news editor at WNYC. And I've chosen the main theme from the movie Moonlight composed by Nicholas Britell.

So moonlight you know, at the time I said, I don't think I've ever connected as much with art as I did with that movie, being a black queer man who, you know, my story was similar to the main character a Little in that movie. 

You know, he's struggling. He's lonely. He's depressed. He's, he's, he's distant from his... From his parents, and a complicated relationship with his mother.

And you know... Having come through bullying and just all these things to stand in his own truth and wrestle with his own truth. And so, hearing that song throughout is like hearing a little bit of the soundtrack to my own life.

You know I feel like there are times when I'm just trying to sit life down or even sit the day down, you know, and just being able to hear the calming transition of those chords allows me to feel centered, and connected, with my own experience and I believe that we're all better when we feel connected wherever we are on the journey. 

For me this is like a melody of truth. Of what it means to own oneself and be comfortable in one's own skin. 

CBH: Lee Hill who chose Little’s Theme from the movie Moonlight, by Nicholas Britell. It’s so short, this piece, and yet, like Lee said, it can do so much. Here it is. I’ll see you tomorrow.