Into the Library with Melina Matsoukas

‘Sensual seduction’ was the most fun I’ve had on set. I was nervous about how a previous pimp would react to a female director, but he was so respectful and trusting it made for a wonderful collaboration. Snoop was so willing to go there as an artist with me. We tried to recreate ‘80s type videos and even used a video camera from 1982 that captured the most beautiful broken down imagery ever. We also shot on 16mm but it felt too clean when compared with the video footage, so last minute I ran around town trying to find an old VCR which I bought from a pawn shop. We transferred all the film footage to VHS and it brought the piece together nicely.

Solange - Losing You

This one was special. I got on a plane with my best friend to South Africa to shoot her and some friends on a day of adventure. It was really important to Solange to incorporate the Sapeurs into the piece, which took the concept to another level. I remember the biggest challenge was that I wanted to capture really candid moments in her performance so I kept sending people into frame to bump into her or disrupt her while she continued to sing. It is both the most nerve-wracking and satisfying thing to work with friends. [There was] so much pressure to deliver on a project that she had been birthing for years, but I was very proud of the outcome.

I had wanted to capture a toxic love affair for the ages. A love so deep and hurtful we all relate to.  We had to shoot in Ireland because Rihanna was starting a tour. I remember I wasn’t sure if she would be comfortable acting in such an intimate way so quickly, since she literally hadn’t met the actor playing her love interest. I think the first set up was a mosh pit and they had to kiss and just be in their own world, with everyone jumping around them. She went for it immediately and I knew we had a magical piece on our hands. The first day we got kicked off a religious farmer’s potato fields after I had them making out and frolicking through his harvest. The second day, news had travelled. It felt like all of Ireland came out to to watch and I literally had no angle to shoot. There were entire schools out there watching with their teachers and helicopters shooting. It was a pretty hectic scene that mirrored the chaos of the concept. We made the news that night…

I feel like this was the piece that represents Beyonce and our years of collaboration, trust, and experimentation. My career essentially started with this woman. She gave me opportunities when no one else would and I am forever indebted to her. This was a time in her career where she wanted to do something profound and unapologetic. It was really a tribute to her roots and the culture and community that birthed her. We shot it in a week from the time I wrote the idea and had to deliver a week afterward right before her Super Bowl performance where she debuted the song with a performance, so there was a lot of pressure to say the least. But as usual, she is such a hardworking, dedicated perfectionist that she was able to pull off shooting eight set ups in a day. The first one was her drowning in a pool on top of a police car. Challenging to say the least. But I’m most proud of this work.

This was such a beautiful tribute to one of the best to ever do it, Kobe. I remember being so inspired by the concept, that we can all ‘be better’ at what we do, how we live, how we walk through life. I knew how important this spot would be to the world and really wanted to honour his life and all the parts that made him great. It was truly like a making a short documentary. I remember scouring YouTube for clips of his life and other moments of people where you could feel his inspiration and spirit represented. I also remembered the only time I met him and was able to speak with him. It was at a friend’s baby shower and he had just had his last daughter. She was an infant. He was holding her and loving up on her the entire time. I made a comment about how beautiful it was to see such a loving father and how special it was to have mine. He said something about how it was his chance to really give and be there every moment, because he wasn’t able to do that when he was on the road. Doing this spot put that conversation into perspective because he was literally saying it was his time to ‘be better’ as a dad. He is missed.

We were coming out of the pandemic when I got the chance to work with Calvin Klein on a spot they wanted to be about community and the need that people have to connect, especially after being forced to isolate for so long. I had wanted to work with Calvin since the start of my commercial career and it felt like the perfect concept for me to elaborate on. I also was able to work with my forever muse Solange again. This was definitely my favourite piece from last year.  

I was literally in Jamaica vacationing when I received these boards about a bit of Kingston history. It was meant to be. I find it really important to be able to tell the stories from which we come. With Levi’s, I appreciated how they wanted to make it known and pay respects to the people and communities that helped make their brand relevant and successful. I also wanted to represent the idea of the barrel and what that means to West Indian people as a symbol of connection. We shot in and around Trenchtown and all over Kingston. I am actually working on a television series about Jamaica in the ‘70s so I was able to bring a lot of that research into the making of this piece.