Bellringer
Music Videos
•
4m 42s
Paying homage to the 90s hip-hop legends, Bellringer is an aggressive stomper with hard-hitting lyrics and masterful storytelling bound up in a cinematic experience that explores liberation—and the personal and structural obstacles that prevent us from achieving it.
Blending live-action cinematography and experimental animations, Bellringer tells the story of Latasha Harlins, a Black 16-year-old whose murder by a Korean grocery store owner in 1991 served as a catalyst for the LA Riots in 1992. Her name, like that of many Black women, is often erased from discussions of the uprisings. The animated part of the film brings hand-painted scenes of Latasha's murder, funeral, and the ensuing Los Angeles riots to life. We also see the narrator of the story, Linqua Franqa, struggling with their own trauma in an empty sanctuary—presumably because everyone is out rioting instead of praying— wondering how the “grim reaper” will come for them. Will they be killed by white supremacist violence or by the coping mechanisms that they have developed in order to deal with the trauma of white supremacist violence? The answer comes in the last few seconds of the film.
Up Next in Music Videos
-
We Should Do This Again
The subject of this video is homelessness. But the POINT of the video is that people trying to survive on the streets are human beings, deserving of compassion, understanding, or at the very least, of simply being SEEN. The song is an invitation to engage, to recognize their humanity ... and not ...
-
Black Lives Matter In West Papua
Sung partly in a threatened West Papuan language and English, this song is a call for freedom and self-determination in West Papua. It is currently occupied by Indonesia. The song highlights the idea that black lives matter in West Papua and that the people want to free West Papua from the pain a...
-
Reminiscence
A poet travels through landscapes that are like poems and paintings, understanding his dreams and looking for his transcendence.
We are inspired by the traditional Chinese ink wash paintings, poems, and music to create these imageries of dreams and memories. We believed in image storytelling tha...
