Nor was he psychotic - unable to tell reality from fiction.

“Nickel Boys” is Ross’ first foray into scripted fiction following his Oscar-nominated, nonlinear documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” which observes moments of modern-day Black life in Alabama.

“A place where our reality, sometimes because of its beauty and harshness, surpasses any fiction. To do so not in an artificial way but in a very artisanal way, instead.”

Though one film is fiction and the other is based on actual events, both stories required adherence to an established idea of the characters.

After she left the department to write fiction, she worked at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.