Born Free

[RiderOnTheStorm]

Crazy violent video by M.I.A to "Born Free" off her newly released album, "Maya". I'm not exactly sure of the message that's trying to be relayed here...

Lyrics

*May not be suitable for all viewers*

M.I.A. Born Free

Thoughts?

 

[Pixelholic]

eh.. I don't think it makes it's point very well. It pulls punches with the "rounding up gingers" thing but at the same time makes everything comical with the cinematography and violence. I think it's a real shame since it could have been a very harrowing video but instead it decided to make everything safe. It loses a lot of its punch that way.

 

[Queen Kat]

Dunno, but I like the song. I think there has been made another thread about this already, a few months ago.

 

[burymecloser]

Dunno, but I like the song. I think there has been made another thread about this already, a few months ago.

Yep: M.I.A.'s Banned Video

Crazy violent video by M.I.A to "Born Free" off her newly released album, "Maya". I'm not exactly sure of the message that's trying to be relayed here...

M.I.A. is an ethnic Tamil from Sri Lanka, where there was a long-standing conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. There were bad guys on both sides. The government stopped at nothing in trying to quell the conflict, and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) were terrorists. Last year, the Sinhalese finally won the civil war, and thousands of Tamil civilians were placed in military camps. The UN is attempting to investigate war crimes, but the Sri Lankan government is doing everything in its power to block them.

Basically, M.I.A. is a member of a group which has recently been a victim of genocide, and (my read is that) she's trying to get people to think about issues of racism and violence.

eh.. I don't think it makes it's point very well. It pulls punches with the "rounding up gingers" thing but at the same time makes everything comical with the cinematography and violence. I think it's a real shame since it could have been a very harrowing video but instead it decided to make everything safe. It loses a lot of its punch that way.

I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you explain?

 

[Pixelholic]

I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you explain?

Sure.

So, she's trying to raise awareness about genocide and discrimination and what not and instead of showing an actual ethnic minority being persecuted she (or the director I guess, since she probably didn't direct it.) instead uses gingers as a stand in. This was probably done for a number of reasons, the biggest being so that it would be "controversial" while still being safe. The idea of gingers being persecuted is far enough removed from any actual reality that it can be portrayed as fictional but the violence is so over the top and shown in a way to be almost reverent to it (slow motion gunshots, running through the mine field, gratuitous explosion at the end, etc.) It becomes a piece that will "preach to the choir" well but won't actually change people's minds or make them aware of the actual cultural genocides going on. But if the director had gone all the way in and tried to portray it then you wouldn't even see the video as funding would have been pulled or something similiar since it wouldn't be marketable anymore and would just make people feel disgusted, which is actually the better response if you're actually wanting people to act upon such injustices.

Does that help explain it?

 

[burymecloser]

Sure.

So, she's trying to raise awareness about genocide and discrimination and what not and instead of showing an actual ethnic minority being persecuted she (or the director I guess, since she probably didn't direct it.) instead uses gingers as a stand in. This was probably done for a number of reasons, the biggest being so that it would be "controversial" while still being safe. The idea of gingers being persecuted is far enough removed from any actual reality that it can be portrayed as fictional but the violence is so over the top and shown in a way to be almost reverent to it (slow motion gunshots, running through the mine field, gratuitous explosion at the end, etc.) It becomes a piece that will "preach to the choir" well but won't actually change people's minds or make them aware of the actual cultural genocides going on. But if the director had gone all the way in and tried to portray it then you wouldn't even see the video as funding would have been pulled or something similiar since it wouldn't be marketable anymore and would just make people feel disgusted, which is actually the better response if you're actually wanting people to act upon such injustices.

Does that help explain it?

Yes, thanks. I tend to agree. I suspect the ginger thing was meant to elicit the opposite reaction, but mine was the same as yours (assuming I'm interpreting you correctly now) -- I would have found the video much more disturbing if the victims were members of a widely oppressed ethnic minority.