Born Free (music video)
| Born Free | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Romain Gavras |
| Written by | Maya Arulpragasam (creator) |
| Starring | Ian Hamrick |
| Music by | Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam |
| Cinematography | Andre Chemetoff |
| Distributed by |
XL Recordings Interscope Geffen A&M |
|
Release date
|
26 April 2010 (premiere) |
|
Running time
|
9:06 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $250,000 (estimated) |
The music video for English recording artist M.I.A.'s "Born Free" was directed by Romain Gavras. The video, which depicts a genocide against red haired people, was filmed in California and directed by Romain Gavras as a nine-minute short film without the prior knowledge of M.I.A.'s record labels. Several incidents relating to the extra-judicial killing of Tamil males by the Sri Lankan Army filmed on mobile phones in Sri Lanka, some of which had been broadcast by news outlets worldwide, inspired M.I.A.'s treatment for the film-video. The video's portrayal of military force, violence and brutality met with a positive critical reception but much controversy worldwide, including a ban from YouTube in the US and UK, with some critics hailing its representation of oppression and political turmoil and others criticizing the explicit material in the video. The way the film was shot and the themes it covered drew comparisons to previous works by the artist, and other writer-directors' films such as The Hurt Locker and Punishment Park. It earned a nomination for "Best Dance Video" at the 2010 UK Music Video Awards.
The music video-short film, filmed in Los Angeles and Lancaster, California on 15 January 2010 was written by M.I.A. and directed by French director Romain Gavras. Gavras, who directed the video for the song "Stress" by Justice which proved controversial after release dealt with themes of "real and fake" which complimented M.I.A.'s vision for the video. M.I.A. intended for the video to depict something real "made not real" to reach a wider audience. The video would depict the footage of the extra-judicial killing of Tamil males she had uploaded three months prior onto her Twitter feed. Red haired men were used in the video following teasing of Maya collaborator Rusko in the studio during the album's recording. The songwriter stated it was one of those "ideas where people would beat the shit out of me because I was ginger [a natural redhead]. It has a whole double meaning. The gingers are kind of anyone who’s been oppressed...I didn't think she'd actually do it." Other roles in the video are played by veterans from the U.S. Army returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the video also features fake blood and ketchup imported from China. Gavras went on to direct the film Our Day Will Come, a continuation of the ginger-genocide theme of the video-short.
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