\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for people to see the show,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 says early in \u201cRenaissance: A Film by Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>,\u201d based on her recent world tour and seventh studio album. \u201cBut I\u2019m really excited for everyone to see the process.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve long wanted to understand her process better, too, especially because she has taken to rarely giving interviews<\/a>. Instead she has let her art speak for itself, a risky venture when critics do the interpreting without her input. My interest in her approach is partly scholarly. I regularly teach courses on her and want my students to learn from her observations. But my enthusiasm is also speculative. I often wonder whether our ignorance of her creative practice has minimized and denied her innovation, ingenuity and individual contributions to her own body of work.<\/p>\n If \u201cRenaissance\u201d was only a film about her beaming audience, dazzling performances and the making of the tour, that would be more than enough. However, it\u2019s clear early on that Beyonc\u00e9 is not entirely interested in fetishizing her \u201cprocess\u201d to validate her artistry. Instead, the movie deconstructs its subject to expand our understanding of her. More poignantly, it critiques how race, gender and genre have limited our ability to see her talent and, by doing so, liberates her from ever again having to prove her singular impact on American culture.<\/p>\n It does so by quickly establishing her creative control. The concert itself reveled in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s simultaneous mastery of dance, music, fashion and live performance, which makes her unparalleled among artists today. On the other hand, the film shows her working backstage and sometimes even underneath it. As the tour director, executive producer and creative director, she oversaw everything from hiring and salaries to musical selections, marketing, choreography, costumes and video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But what makes \u201cRenaissance\u201d unique among other great concert films is that she did not just star in it the way the Talking Heads did in Jonathan Demme\u2019s classic \u201cStop Making Sense<\/a>\u201d or Madonna in Alek Keshishian\u2019s provocative \u201cTruth or Dare<\/a>.\u201d Beyonc\u00e9 also wrote, directed and produced the film. In fact, she has created some of the past decade\u2019s most memorable cinematic musical experiences and should be considered an auteur \u2014 in terms of both this film and her career.<\/p>\n In this way, \u201cRenaissance\u201d is the culmination of her film projects, beginning with the visual albums \u201cBeyonc\u00e9\u201d<\/a> (2013) and \u201cLemonade\u201d<\/a> (2016); her intimate documentary \u201cLife Is but a Dream\u201d (2013); the 2019 Coachella concert film \u201cHomecoming\u201d; and \u201cBlack Is King\u201d (2020), the visual companion she and Blitz Bazawule made for the soundtrack \u201cThe Lion King: The Gift.\u201d But by offering the most in-depth document of her vision, preparation and personal sacrifice, the new film goes further than these productions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The film opens with Beyonc\u00e9 commanding our attention first in a black gauzy dress and then in a citron yellow one, her hair blowing as she belts \u201cDangerously in Love 2.\u201d She later revisits that moment through a flashback showing her at work with her production team. Via voice-overs and close-ups of her in far more casual clothing, we watch as she gives her team notes about camera angles, lighting and the speed and direction of the mechanical fans. If only we could rewind to that first performance to better appreciate all the technical components that went into making that moment appear so flawless.<\/p>\n In another scene in which the entire sound system cuts out as she sings \u201cAlien Superstar\u201d in Glendale, Ariz., the tension really mounts. She and her dancers leave the stage immediately. That\u2019s all the live audience knows. But as a film director, she has the cameras follow her backstage to capture her audio team\u2019s update (\u201cIt will be back on in three minutes\u201d). Within that short period, she convinces the wardrobe department she has enough time for a quick costume change, then, in a new outfit, meets with her head of music production to test a new transition to the next song. It is an exhilarating sequence that makes her seamless comeback to the stage even more admirable and shows her remarkable sense of timing and tension as a storyteller and filmmaker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These moments pose the question of why it took her so long to exhibit such a thrilling illustration of her leadership. And then I realized: We were the problem; we just hadn\u2019t listened to her.<\/p>\n Beyonc\u00e9 has spent most of her career telling us she was in charge. As far back as 2004, \u201cBeyonc\u00e9: Live at Wembley<\/a>,\u201d a concert film about her first solo tour, featured the artist at 22 as well as its creative director, Kim Burse, and choreographer, Frank Gatson, discussing how the headliner had helped conceive the show and chose its costumes, songs and choreography. Subsequent documentaries like the short \u201cBeyonc\u00e9: Year of 4<\/a>\u201d and \u201cLife Is but a Dream\u201d focused even more intensely on her artistic independence after she split from her father and longtime manager, Mathew Knowles, and started her own company, Parkwood, to manage herself.<\/p>\n