A new Beyonce documentary directed and produced by Beyonce herself will air on HBO February 16. At first I was like...and how is this different from her I Am...World Tour concert DVD (which, if you haven’t you have to because it’s amazing) and then, in reading the description -- that B’s taking us back to Houston through home movies and other archives from her personal collection, including footage from her laptop (this is how artists shoot documentaries about themselves now) -- I realised that what we’re actually getting is a film version of Bey’s Tumblr, and I think we’ve agreed, unanimously, that the way she’s managed her Tumblr is nothing short of awesome.
If you watched Spike Lee’s Bad 25 last week, one of the best parts of that film was that he showed Michael Jackson AT WORK. Rehearsing, writing, recording, even sketching his costumes -- it’s the effort that goes into the performance, the effort that comes before the spotlight that’s most interesting, at least to me. I want to see this of Beyonce. I want to get a sense of that work ethic, how hard she pushes, how she finishes a show at midnight and at 2am is still with her choreographers tweaking bits that didn’t work, fixing the lighting, adjusting the speed of the songs, etc. Very few of them maintain that level of control over every aspect of their careers -- and when they do, we need to see more of it. Madonna used to show us, and then she didn’t. In her mind she’s been there and done it. But when does that ever get old?
And then, of course, the cameo appearances by the Blue Ivy Carter, obviously. We’ll get some of that in the doc too. The Blue Ivy Carter showed up on the Tumblr for Thanksgiving. I love her fuzzy head and how little she looks in her dad’s arms.
Attached -- B and Jay-Z at the Brooklyn Nets game.
