M.I.A & Romain Gavras’ “Born Free” - Graphic, Violent, Political…Necessary. (NSFW)
Hip Hop artist and music producer M.I.A has teamed up with controversial French filmmaker Romain Gavras to create this rather disturbing nine minute music video that, as Jezebel put it, raises more question than it answers.
M.I.A, a personal favorite of mine, is no stranger to producing music saturated with political and social commentary. Inspired by her Sri Lankan heritage, her experiences as an immigrant to the UK and her background in visual art, Maya Arulpragasam (her real name) often matches songs that highlight independence struggles and extremism with colorful, often cheery graphics and imagery.
Born Free, her newest single from her upcoming album, appears to take a more literal approach, at least visually. The video consists of young red headed men being rounded up by an American security force, taken out to the desert and executed. It is brutal, bloody and yet beautiful; if killing young boys could be called beautiful that is. One can take any message from this video but its clear it deals with genocide, both past and present. Being a Sri Lankan of Tamil ancestry and a daughter of a former Tamil Tiger, this video could be highlighting the subjugation of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka as we have seen Arulpragasam campaign for better Tamil rights. However, I believe it points out that genocide and racism doesn’t only exist in regions of civil unrest, but even in our own backyard. (African Americans in the US? Aboriginals in Canada and Australia? Uighurs in China?)
Racism is unfair, undeserved and appears to be inherent in those who partake in such discriminatory acts. The video really highlights this fact as M.I.A chooses red headed men, not blondes or brunettes, not women, not even African American’s, Arabs, or Latinos, particular groups at the forefront of racial tension in the western world. First off, having red hair as always and seemingly inherently been the brunt of a joke for centuries. Therefore it effectively combines this old joke of being a “ginger” with the horrible reality of racism and genocide. As a result this leads us to acknowledge that such discrimination could happen, has happened, and continues to happen to almost anyone and everyone. It may also be effective that this video was seemed to be released strategically, by the filmmaker, immediately after the new Arizona law was passed earlier this month which allows for people to be arrested based on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.
Like M.I.A, this is nothing out of the ordinary for director Romain Gavras who created the Parisian art collective Kourtrajmé that champions graffiti culture and hip hop music. His music videos are more like social documentaries as one of more famous pieces was created for french electronic band Justice and their 2008 single, “Stress” that highlighted the awkward positioning of young African immigrants in contemporary French society. (I’ll post the link to this video later)
Born Free, M.I.A and Romain Gavras really shows the significance of popular culture transcending its role as a cultural commodity made for mass consumption. Instead, it can provide a strong illustration of the potential for contemporary art to contain images and ideas of real socio-political dialogue.
