Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé

The concert film brings together stage footage from the Renaissance tour, the preparation and the decisions taken along the way. Beyoncé directed it herself and put the camera not only on the stage but into the rehearsal room, the design meetings and the moments of decision, and every detail from the lighting to the costumes is visibly signed off by her. The central matter is how hard a woman has to work to keep control of her own work. Personal sections cut in: the surgery on her knee, the stories her mother tells, and her daughter Blue Ivy's insistence on going onstage. There is an explicit acknowledgement of the ballroom culture the album rests on and of the Black queer community that built it. It runs past three hours. Who it is for: viewers who like concert films and want to see the production process behind the stage. Who it is not for: anyone wanting critical distance, since the film is told by its own subject.