Beyoncé said, “The goal for this tour was to create a place where everyone is free, and no one is judged. Start over, start fresh, create the new–that’s what the Renaissance is about.”
On December 1, 2023, Beyoncé released “Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé”, a documentary of her “Renaissance” tour. It was distributed by AMC. During opening week, the movie debuted at number one at the box office with $21 million, gained 97% on Rotten Tomatoes–which is notorious for being harsh, and earned a perfect 100 percent on audience score.
The movie opens with screaming fans wearing silver costumes, per Beyoncé’s request to match the theme of the album. The blank screen on the stage displayed the pride flag, which was made to honor LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous, people of color, and people with HIV/AIDS. The stage plays a major part in the visuals of the show. It features pyrotechnics and lighting.
She opens the show speaking about her gratefulness for her imperfections and how they made her the person she is. She thanks her dedicated fans for supporting her despite her flaws. Beyoncé emphasizes that we, as humans, can never be perfect, and we deserve to be confident despite our imperfections.
The tour took four years to create due to all of the mechanics. She talks about the crew and the behind-the-scenes details of creating her vision, including the struggles of creating her vision as a Black woman.
In the White, male-dominated entertainment industry, many people she works with do not respect her or trust her thought process. Even though she has proven her abilities countless times, she has to do extra work to receive equal treatment.
She encourages viewers to not give up and stand up for themselves, as “I’M THAT GIRL” and “Please, mother******* ain’t stoppin’ me” echo through the concert. A mix of male and female dancers are performing with strong and expressive choreography.
Next is Beyoncé’s inclusion of Afro-futurism elements. Afro-futurism is a form of futuristic media that focuses on the Black diaspora in the distant future. A popular example is the movie “Black Panther”. Some elements in the movie are the silver color schemes and the robotic costumes.
For a portion of the movie, she contemplates the concept of time, our society’s current application of time, and how it reduces people to machines. “Alien Superstar” was the perfect song to center this. She discusses the topic while showing clips of her performing lyrics like, “I’m too classy for this world,” and “Supernatural love up in the air.”
Throughout the songs, there are different flashes of film across different concerts drawing costume changes from city to city. “ENERGY” plays, and the movie screen features clips of the mute challenge being done by some celebrities–Cardi B and Tracee Ellis Ross.
“BREAK MY SOUL(QUEENS REMIX)” features a full set of male dancers. The energy on stage is unapologetically confident. There is a shoutout to all of the Black women in music entertainment, with stars from the 50s till now: Bessie Smith, Sade, Nicki Minaj, Lizzo, Tierra Whack, and more are mentioned. She even mentions multiple ballroom houses.
After this, she delves into ballroom culture, also known as ball culture. Ballroom culture is the pageant culture of Black and Latino queer men. It was created as a safe space because of racism in popular drag competitions. These competitions would typically be held in ballroom houses, and the houses include “House of Revlon” and “House of LaBeija”. She exemplifies two main components of ballroom culture: house music and vogue, a form of dance.
A main pioneer of it is Kevin JZ Prodigy. He was invited by Beyoncé to be an announcer for the show. She makes it clear that femininity is for everyone to embrace, not just women. The song is tailored for people whose souls were made to be broken in our society.
Next, she takes a trip into the past, and songs like “Formation”, “Run the World (Girls)”, and “MY POWER”, brings full circle the confidence she has been bringing to Black feminine people throughout her career.
Another vital part of the show was Blue Ivy’s dance performance during “MY POWER” and “BLACK PARADE”. Her 11-year-old old-daughter Blue Ivy danced during the show and she received a lot of hate on social media. However, Beyoncé said she “became fearless” from practicing her craft, and learned to ignore hateful comments.
Then, the tour arrives in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston, Texas.
When her tour lands in Houston, she talks about her childhood and the beauty of Black culture in Houston. She even meets up with Destiny’s Child. It is a perfect intro to her feature on Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage (Remix)”, featuring two Houston natives celebrating their sexuality.
During “Partition”, she delves into her own feminine identity, and how she creates different personas for her life as a performer, businesswoman, mother, and wife. She talks about how hard it is to balance everything, especially considering her family came on tour with her.
Her cover of “Before I Let Go” comes on, which is basically a national cookout song, and the crowd does the electric slide.
Delving into her life as a performer, she talks about how she expresses herself and impacts others through her singing voice. I wish she included a portion acknowledging the impact of her incredible dances, it would have fit in perfectly with this movie’s message of strength.
With her powerful voice, lyrics, and visuals, the confident dances bring her performances together. However, the movie was already two hours and 50 minutes without it, so I am not too upset.
Earlier in her career, she injured her singing voice, and had to be put on vocal rest. She even rode rides at Six Flags, and did not scream to protect her voice. Another injury happened to her knee. She was practicing for a show, and she flew into metal stairs. She re-injured her knee before the tour, needed surgery, and had to recover shortly before performing on this tour.
She sang “River Deep, Mountain High”, in tribute to Tina Turner, because she died while she was on tour. It was followed by a surprise feature of Diana Ross singing to Beyoncé at her birthday concert. She talks about the generational impact of Tina Turner and Diana Ross. They were big stars who introduced the world to black female performers, so Beyoncé would have had an easier experience, and the platform to be such a big influence in the music industry.
Beyoncé created a girl group to be background singers at her concert.
“MOVE” feat. Grace Jones and Tems plays. With lyrics like, “Move out the way! I’m with my girls and we all need space,” she exercises a non-traditional aspect of femininity: power. They encourage feminine people to embrace power and be forceful.
Then, she introduces us to her Uncle Johnny who passed away from AIDS when she was 17 years old. The movie was even released on National AIDS Day, December 1.
As “HEATED” booms through the stadium, handheld fans with the word “Heated”, which were sold at the concerts, were being clacked on screen. Her mom talks about how he participated in ballroom culture, and his struggles being a gay black man in Southern America. He would get a lot of flack for expressing his creativity, but proceeded with confidence, and that confidence inspired her kids.
He loved fashion, and in the beginning of Destiny’s Child, her mom and uncle even sewed all of their clothes by hand. His love of fashion carried into Beyoncé, and made her think of it as an imperative part of her performances.
“Crazy in Love” plays, and she does her viral, astounding riff she performed at a private concert in Dubai.
Towards the end, Beyoncé gives a final “thank you” to the beehive, the name of her fanbase. Her fans call her Queen B, like a queen bee in a beehive. Beyoncé is the queen bee, and all of her fans are bees in the beehive. She thanks her fans for their unrelenting support, and talks about how much they inspire her.
“AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM” plays, and Kendrick Lamar performs his feature in Inglewood, California, his home state.
She transitions into talking about her development as a person. She talks about being 42, and letting things go, and prioritizing herself instead of people-pleasing. Silver confetti falls down from the ceiling, and the concert tapes end.
The film ends with her with her family in her jet saying the words, “I feel liberated.”
As if the whole movie was not enough, Beyoncé released a new song, “My House” during the credits. The song was also released on streaming platforms the day the movie was dropped.
The movie was incredibly impressive from the visuals, facial expressions, costumes, dances, songs, and lessons. The movie is for people who are constantly being underestimated, disrespected, or misunderstood. It is a reminder to not become discouraged, and to realize your power.
Since the movie, there has been calling for Beyoncé to be recognized as an auteur. Similar to a book author, an auteur is a filmmaker who had so much personal influence on a movie, they are considered the “author” of the movie. Their influence on a movie mirrors the way an author influences a book.
I completely agree. The whole movie was Beyoncé’s vision. Not only did she incorporate parts about her life, but she included messages of strength and embracing yourself in the face of adversity.