The video for Beyonce’s new song “Formation” has fans going wild, but at least one filmmaker isn’t happy with it, claiming that Queen Bey took clips from a documentary he produced about New Orleans and used them in her video without permission.
“New Beyonce video used hella clips from the doc I produced and directed by @abteen …but why?!?!” Chris Black tweeted on Saturday. “I guess it’s flattering that people fuck with the things you’ve created but also frustrating when they wanna use it like it’s theirs.”
According to Black, Beyonce took footage from his 2013 documentary “That B.E.A.T,” directed by Abteem Bagheri.
But Entertainment Weekly reports that Beyonce’s rep claims they had clearance to use the footage.
“The documentary footage was used with permission and licensed from the owner of the footage,” a statement read. “They were given proper compensation. The footage was provided to us by the filmmaker’s production company. The filmmaker is listed in the credits for additional photography direction. We are thankful that they granted us permission.”
That’s not the understanding according to Black, who called out the video’s director, Melina Matsoukas on Twitter, asking, “Why Melina gotta use clips from our doc?!? Was the budget not big enough to spend a week in New Orleans and actually build with the people.”
Matsoukas took to Twitter to acknowledge the used footage, tweeting, “Must give much love to the beautiful NOLA footage shot and directed by @abteen and @lkeber to make #FORMATION whole,” but Black laughed it off and tweeted back, “Lol, your 500k budget wasn’t enough to make your video ‘whole.’”
Beyonce’s reps have not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
See the tweets below.
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696109561678209024
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696110728906874880
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696112895290007554
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696113339408080896
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696114486000746496
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696139270134706176
Must give much love to the beautiful NOLA footage shot and directed by @abteen and @lkeber to make #FORMATION whole.
— melina matsoukas (@melinamatsoukas) February 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/TheBlack/status/696143794383691777