Cruel Summer (2012)

Directed by

Kanye West

Genre

musical film

Country

United States

Runtime

25 min

Rating

4.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This short film follows a series of loosely connected vignettes set to music from the GOOD Music album. It features multiple perspectives and a non-linear narrative. The story focuses on themes of fame, excess, and personal struggle.

experimentalimmersiveenergeticfragmentedgrandiosedensekineticmusic-driven

What happens

Cruel Summer is a short film written and directed by American rapper Kanye West that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, and was shown out of competition. A custom pyramid-shaped screening pavilion was constructed for the film's debut, designed by conceptual firms Donda, OMA and 2x4. The theater featured seven screens – three in the front, one on the floor, one on the ceiling and one on both the right and left side of the space. Cruel Summer was shot using a specialized camera rig, which allowed the directors to capture multiple angles simultaneously. This style of filming and screening a movie has since become known as the "Seven Screen Experience". The film is inspired by the album of the same name by West's record label GOOD Music. It has been described as a "fusion of short film and art", with the Los Angeles Times raving Cruel Summer has a "thumping surround-sound quality that makes a 3-D Michael Bay effort feel like an iPad short." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Channeler (2012)
• Crazy for It (2012)
• Je sens le beat qui monte en moi (2012)
• The Exhibitionists (2012)
• Violent Delights
• Life! Camera Action... (2012)
• Boogie Town (2012)
• Stars in Shorts (2012)