It’s a speechless, eye-opening moment because Lazer’s intense focus on the house and the workers allow the reality to set in for viewers. Her stance on the situation is that she’ll handle her business due to not being able to trust the dependency of Roofing Contractors to replace her damaged shingles. She even is shown attempting to sweep and help the workers clean the house. You can hear the frustration and tiredness in her voice as her voiceover continues playing while the unfinished restoration of the house is shown on the camera. One scene in the beginning of the film reveals the house of an elderly Black woman whose home in Baton Rouge, LA. The subjects in this film are random people from different age groups and cities that carry various life experiences through their tone of voice and body language. While a majority of music documentaries just incorporate new music within one or two scenes, J.Cole uses his album to push the narratives of his subjects. “Want You to Fly, an unreleased J.Cole track, also uses an outdoor setting to bring focus into religion and how Black folk need a high power to believe in to keep moving forward. The inverted colors in some parts also served as the simple purpose of contextualizing the beautiful imagery of the inside of houses and surrounding communities. A great example of this is the music video for the song “Neighbors” showcasing actual footage where police officers were raiding “The Sheltuh,” J.Cole’s creative hub for his Dreamville artists. Lazer and Cole pulled off the smooth hybrid of implementing music videos within an observational documentary. The format for the duration of the film continues in this manner with scenes having a longer extension due to the messages portrayed that tie directly into Cole’s album lyrics and production. The friend was a former drug dealer that was attempting to move on from his past after giving birth to his daughter. The album is written from the perspective of Cole’s late childhood friend, using the pseudonym “James McMillian, Jr.,” as a form of getting his story to his young daughter after being murdered at the age of 22. The scene then transitions into the music video for “For Whom the Bell Tolls” off of J.Cole’s most recent project at the time, 4 Your Eyez Only, which served as the soundtrack to the film. Cole stands in as both observant co-director and willing participant as he listens in and examines the emotions and body language behind each individual commentary on Black plight in America. The scene quickly transitions into one of the many conversations of the film, which is the direction to go as individuals and a community in the awakening of the Trump presidency. The result of their efforts was an eye-opening, heartbreaking experience for most removed viewers in what a majority of Black Americans would consider a normal routine.Ĭlocking in at 49 minutes, the film opens with Cole greeting fans and holding casual conversation as he films content on his Super 8 camera with Lazer filming the surrounding areas. They sought to capture the conversation of daily plight in communities that are not properly represented in mainstream media. Cole and Lazer embarked on a journey visiting folks from Black communities in locations that included Baton Rouge, LA., Atlanta, GA., Ferguson, MO., and Cole’s hometown of Fayetteville, NC as the rise of police brutality continued to increase towards higher peaks in the last decade. However, he and director Scott Lazer did just that when they premiered “J.Cole: 4 Your Eyez Only” on April 15th, 2017 via a partnership between HBO and Dreamville Films, which is the film division of Cole’s record label Dreamville Records. J.Cole, one of music’s current supersta rs, is not exactly the kind of artist you would picture filming from a vintage 8mm Super 8 camera or much less co-direct a documentary. What my goal is, is to allow the world to see the humanity that I know personally to be the truth.” - Kehinde Wiley “I understand Blackness from the inside out.
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