Super disturbing. Still, at least Donald Glover is making work in our time. It seems like it's equal parts seriousness and sarcasm. It's powerful that I can't tell which is which. Is the most consistent element sarcasm or serious? "Grandma said black man get your money." I don't know. I don't think Glover would say that money is the total sum of what African Americans want or need. But it's also consistently the thing (resources in general) that are fundamentally withheld from them in every sector. I liked the sweet sounding melodies as a paradox to the violent scenes and the desperation in lines like “Black boy you're just a barcode.” That feels very authentic to how America operates– warm fuzzies, freedom for all, safe spaces and politically correct culture– same time we're shooting each other up at crazy rates, we feast on social media cesspools, we’re addicting to consumption, and our sitting president is a racist and many people are openly ok with that. We're a two-faced people. And Glover employs that too familiar black man dancing for the white people routine. Can't say I totally understand this, and I could never really do so from where I am. It definitly confronted me with some ugly realities. Do you think Glover shoots the choir interpreting them to be clown-like, appeasing to white expectations, distributers of propaganda or was it a reminder that no matter how peaceful/joyful/resilient etc. black folks are still vulnerable to the white hate of Charleston? Idk that part was....
...Just watched the commentary. So good. And extremely helpful, technically. I had intuition about the wave, in and out technique before, but I hadn't thought it through that deeply. We've got the do that with the eiva video...gonna watch the commentary again.
Thanks for sending this.
-Thanks for looking at it. The chaotic and violent moments juxtaposed with the happy, upbeat parts are like an internal to external battle and also a battle of what happens in the public sphere vs what is expected. There seem to be a lot of interpretations to all the layers of the video. I think Donald Glover did a brilliant job of acting as well. I'm not sure what the choir was about beyond it being a part of African American culture and the shootings that have happened around it. It seems to be ambiguous on purpose, like most of the video. Like a caricature.
I like how wolfcrow breaks down the video. It really adds another layer.
This is also an interesting read if you have the time -https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/