Formation (music video)
The video cuts to a wall graffitied with the phrase: "Stop shooting us", echoing the demand of the Black Lives Matter movement for reform in policing and criminal justice.
The music video caused controversy from conservative figures, law enforcement organizations and social media users over perceived anti-police, anti-American and racist messages, including the National Sheriffs' Association and theInternet Research Agency.
Matsoukas explained how she treats the videos she directs "like a thesis project", spending hours browsing art books, magazines, and websites.
Matsoukas conceived scenes featuring events from throughout black history, including slavery, Mardi Gras parades and the Rodney King protests.
To evoke a Southern Gothic aesthetic, production designer Ethan Tobman and his crew decorated rooms with vintage plantation-era rugs and furniture, while adding storm shutters, Spanish moss, ivy, and wisteria to the building's exterior.
A series of pulleys and cables connected to a winch and a crane allowed Beyoncé and the police car to be repeatedly sunk into the water with controlled speed.
[4] The music video is set in New Orleans, exploring interpretations of the city's past, present and future in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, in turn forming a celebration of black pride and resilience.
[citation needed] Beyoncé is seen embodying several archetypal Southern black women that span time, class, and space,[13] which Ryann Donnelly viewed as being nine distinct personas that recur throughout the video.
[18] The scene forms a criticism of the police response to Hurricane Katrina, which disproportionately affected people of color, while also acting as a symbol of rebirth.
[20] Jennifer Sweeney-Risko believes Beyoncé's outfit in this scene to be a reference to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, who traveled through the South to plan freedom rides, sit-ins and voter registration drives while wearing jeans and simple dresses to replicate the clothes of the black working class.
[23] Beyoncé is later depicted standing in front of a plantation house with a black wide-brimmed hat covering her eyes, which Janell Hobson interprets as an invocation of the Vodou death loa Maman Brigitte.
Headlined "More Than A Dreamer", the image contains the caption: "What is the real legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and why was a revolutionary recast as an acceptable Negro leader?"
Laura Visser-Maessen wrote that with this scene, Beyoncé is bringing awareness to the whitewashing of King's legacy as a non-radical figure, which is being used to undermine the current movement for racial equality.
The video cuts to a wall graffitied with the phrase: "Stop shooting us", echoing the demand of the Black Lives Matter movement for reform in policing and criminal justice.
[2][3] Syreeta McFadden for The Guardian noted that the video depicts archetypal southern black women "in ways that we haven't seen frequently represented in popular art or culture".
News' "The Most Memorable Music Videos Ever" list, describing it as "a gorgeous paean to the Black experience in America, both a love letter and a rally cry.
"[28] The music video, as well as the song in general and its performance at the Super Bowl halftime show received criticism from conservative figures, law enforcement organizations and social media users over perceived anti-police, anti-American and racist messages.
[55] Conservative TV host Tomi Lahren directed a rant towards Beyoncé, accusing her of "ramrodding an aggressive agenda down our throats" and concluding: "Your husband was a drug dealer.
[61] Outside Beyoncé's concert at NRG Stadium on May 7, 2016, the Coalition of Police and Sheriffs held a demonstration over the Black Lives Matter themes in "Formation".
The protesters wore "Police Lives Matter" T-shirts, held a printout of Jay Z's mugshot, and shone a blue light toward the stadium.
The sketch, which depicted some white people's reactions to the "unapologetically black" song, was named "the best SNL skit ever" by Tre'vell Anderson of the Los Angeles Times.
