MIA (மாதங்கி 'மாயா' அருள்பிரகாசம்)'s new video for the BORN FREE song was taken down by youtube because of their "content policy".
Directed by Romain Gavras, it features nudity, graphic violence and a plot where ginger haired people are rounded up by pissed off soldiers into an armour-protected prison bus, driven to the desert and either shot or made to run through a minefield.............
M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.
The soldiers have American flag patches, and one ginger haired person is wearing a keffiyeh (outside of the Middle East and North Africa the keffiyeh first gained popularity among activists supporting the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel)......yet in the video plot there is no particular struggle explicitly addressed.
But by addressing no specific struggle, she addresses all struggles.
It is really common for white/western/rich/privelledged people to have ADJUSTED, NORMALISED and feel DISTANCED and UNAFFECTED by violence, genocide, torture, discrimination and war in non white/non western/non rich communities........we are living in a world where white people assume that violence and oppression inevitably happen to the "other." .. .. . . .
But by showing white red-haired people brutalized for no discernible reason other then being white with red hair, the video has induced "shock and horror".... mostly with people who identify with the white ginger physically or geographically.
SOOOOO by demonstrating white people suffering brutal violence, white viewers cannot automatically "otherize" them and are forced to consider the reality of violence and oppression.
And awareness is the very first step to action. so of course, this video was taken down from youtube. im sure there were ALOT of complaints from disturbed, pissed off white people who cant handle images of systematic oppression.
MIA is a really great artist who puts alot of time and thought into everything she makes, and i think she is really fucking successful at using her fame to affect people and make social/political commentary and change through art....which i think is actually really, really hard to do. So much art fails when it tries to do anything real or say anything beyond ego shit.
here is a quote from MIA:
"The Third World deserves freedom of speech just like everyone else. We want to fight the battle to say what we want, whether to be serious or just make fun of ourselves. That's what 'Worldtown' is about, that's what 'Paper Planes' is about. It's what people in the third world live through."
MIA released this statement when the "war on terror" was announced......
"You can't separate the world into two parts like that, good and evil. Terrorism is a method, but America has successfully tied all these pockets of independence, struggles, revolutions, and extremists into one big notion of terrorism."
MIA was born in London. Then her family moved to their native Sri Lanka when she was six months old. While her father worked as a political activist with the Tamil Tigers, she was displaced until the age of eight due to the country's civil war. She moved with her mother and siblings to India to escape the violence, and eventually she and her siblings returned to London as refugees.
As for BORN FREE VIDEO.......
im so glad this got made and i think its hilarious that it got taken down from youtube, what a fucken joke!!! Good on MIA for making it, she is a fucken mastermind goddess....
PS-it was only put on the net on the 26th april (two days ago)
and just then when i searched it, it was 61st most popular search on google in the past hour....... number one was the new season of The Hills. .....ugh
PPS- yes it samples the fuck out of suicide, but her song 'paperplanes' sampled the fuck out of The clash. who cares? the first world "samples" the fuck out of EVERYTHING from every country its exploiting....., the whole fucking system that we live in, and economy is built on theft, genocide, invasion and slavery. MIA sampling is these bands is something we should be thanking her for. its like G rated restorative justice ......we shuld be grateful
XXXXX
yeh 4 real kati. that video is really important. but when was there ever an issue with people sampling tracks? <3 <3 ps. when i looked 'm.i.a. born free' up this morning it was 6th most googled: mini meme
ReplyDeleteps. maybe u were talking about appropriating music like 'deep forest' style. <3 i was just trying to imagine who would be pissed off about m.i.a. sampling suicide and clash and couldn't work out who would take issue with that.
ReplyDeletei think m.i.a. is fucking amazing, and i think this video is really awesome for its message and the way it is filmed. it's definitely gonna have an impact on people, and inspire a lot of important discussion. sometimes i wonder/worry though about the saturation of violence in popular culture, and whether it sometimes can become more of a spectacle than a powerful message. kind of a bit like womyn musicians who have a lot of raunch shit in their music videos claiming that the raunch is 'ironic'...if you know what i mean... the intention may be to be 'ironic' or get across a strong message, but the shock value or sexual nature of the moment can sometimes cloud those intentions. blah...hmmm...i dunno.
ReplyDeletei really think the world is a better place for this music video though, if such a thing can be said of music videos.
the irony of it is that the ongoing joke about the persecution of gingers is a parody of a time when the English didn't have anything better to do (any other othering to do?) and discriminated within the white race according to degrees of whiteness.
ReplyDeleteso the ginger complexion, freckles and hair WAS considered inferior because it was seen as being less white.
but not anymore that there's other people to pick on, silly.
kati thanks so much for writing this you are so cool and perceptive and really know how to SAY things and be UNDERSTOOD. ya know??
ReplyDeleteLOVES M.i.A. and LOVES you!!
i like this article, giving me a way to understand this videoclip but, i dislike gavras for some reasons
ReplyDeletefirst of all i believe that this videoclip is for him and not for m.i.a. : his first movie will be out soon speaking about two french ginger men who go to ireland to escape mockery people making of them (sorry my english is so shitty...) and we know that this videoclip will be like HUGE bcuz people will be shocked and speaking about it
m.i.a. doesnt need no publicity or anything, she doesnt need any buzz cuz shes big and "famous" (all the stuff around her baby show it) whereas gavras, hes much underground and people dont really know about him
and strangely this video clip is about ginger who are persecuted
then he uses too much violence to express himself, givin no key or anything else to understand his work (videoclip for stress from justice or videoclip for french rappers mafia k'1 fry are good examples of it)
and i dont like censure or someshit but i think this videoclip is not suitable for kids for example, so i think its not bad there is some restriction on it (but what do youtube do about porno, racism, nazi, antisemitism, homophobic, misogynous movies on its website... i think not that much, or at least not enough...)
well if my sentences, or my ideas are blurry because of my shit english i'll try a way to express them in a better way (i had to make my ideas more simple so it may sounds childish, or naive but my lack of vocabulary and grammar in english make it that way :s)
hey enrico,
ReplyDeletethanks so much for writing!
i feel like i understand your comment completely...yu do not sound childish or naive.
i think the points you raise about Gavras are really interesting, it does seem like a strange co-incidence that his new film has similar content to the video clip.
and you are right, all his videos are really violent.
i think maybe it is his aesthetic, and something he likes to comment on.....
but these are interesting points you have made...
which im interpreting as, yeah MIA is cool and she knows what she is doing, but maybe that director guy is just some dude who likes making violent videos and he isnt as strongly political as her, and his plot line that was promoting his movie was lucky enough to come across as really meaningful...??
but i mean...even if he wasnt trying to be really political or say something, i think that the video has still totally managed to do/say heaps of stuff.....
XOXOOXXO PEACE !!
wait i just looked at yr profile. are you eric?? hahahaha sorry, i just replied without looking at who yu were.
ReplyDeletexxxxxxxxxx
yeh i have 'issues' with the vid too...
ReplyDeletelike, i think its very important and powerful, but i jsut can't shake the feeling that its also a 'very clever videoclip' that will 'make people go whoa' but that's kind of where many people's responses may end (and right too, its just a vid clip so does it need to do more than that??)
kt spit also brought up the point that its weird that its just men being killed by other men, when the reality of war/genocide is that women are there getting killed/raped/terrorized also (as well as serving in armed forces).
but what does it mean to see a white body blown to pieces? for me, the video clip seemed directly related to M.I.A's struggle to voice to the world the plight of Tamil's in Sri Lanka (and other unspoken wars and genocides in other places around the world), and to convey this to a white audience who other themselves from wars that are fought offshore, in other places and against people who 'look different' to themselves.
I also know that this video has 'hilariously' been taken by some commentators as 'haha, M.I.A. hates gingers too'. it is a strange reality that the only people to my mind that it is totally legal and acceptable to discriminate against based on 'natural' skin colour/hair colour etc (in Australia at least) are 'gingers' as they are not 'race', so this discrimination/abuse is not 'racism' (eg, look at this advert made by the Victorian Government LAST MONTH http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETZR-CL3NDk).
anyway, a lot of mixed up ideas. i think this video is important, i just don't think the it has been executed in the most powerful/effective manner. but again, its just a video clip, it does what it does.
x x x xx x
hahhaaha the things i wanna say next, i cant cuz they are so controversial and full on. they arent arguing anyone, lets just say i got no issues with the vid hahaha xxxx
ReplyDeleteyes yes its me, i dunno how to change enrico to eric :s
ReplyDeletei think you make a good summary of my thinkings !
however, i think gavras knows what he does and really express something by this video but by not giving explanation on what he tried to say people can imagine everything, including the opposite of what he/mia wanted to say and this could be really really wrong
and i think that this could be a teaser for his new movie cuz we dont hear that much the song (only at some moments and quite badly) and we dont see at anytime mia (i know videoclips dont have to necessary show the artist)
if i can understand people can be shocked or dislike the videoclip i cant understand they hate the music bcuz its made out of a sample of suicide... this is GREAT ! shes a rapper who have a big influence on people, and using a sample from an electro/rock band making something totally new, this is really powerfull i think, opening mind to a lot of people
and like you said she does it for a lot : sunshowers, uraqt, paperplanes etc. and people were not so fuckt up
xoxox PEACE (out she kills you like Uma)
(ps : i like there's space for ol dat i see too)
u guy look fucking crazi:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DC292A8788CFC72
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DC292A8788CFC72
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DC292A8788CFC72
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DC292A8788CFC72
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DC292A8788CFC72
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DC292A8788CFC72
peace