Passing Q&A with Rebecca Hall, Devonté Hynes, and Jacob Ribicoff

Passing director Rebecca Hall, composer Devonté Hynes, and sound design and supervision, re-recording mixer Jacob Ribicoff joined Film at Lincoln Center for an Artist Academy special event, sponsored by the Dolby Institute. Moderated by Glenn Kiser, Director of the Dolby Institute. A cornerstone work of Harlem Renaissance literature, Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing is adapted to the screen with exquisite craft and skill by writer-director Rebecca Hall, who envelops the viewer in a bygone period that remains tragically present. The film’s extraordinary anchors are Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, meticulous as middle-class Irene and Clare, reacquainted childhood friends whose lives have taken divergent paths. Clare has decided to “pass” as white to maintain her social standing, even hiding her identity from her racist white husband, John (Alexander Skarsgård); Irene, on the other hand, is married to a prominent Black doctor, Brian (André Holland), who is initially horrified at Clare’s cho