Notes on Lemonade

General summary of the visual album:

Lemonade captures the conflicts within Beyoncé’s marriage while simultaneously making a radical attempt to confront
and redefine the representation of black women in pop culture. Beyoncé pulls from her personal experiences as well as
various creative contributions to bring attention to larger social experiences shared amongst the black community.
Creative contributions to the visual album include but are not limited to poems by a celebrated black female poet,
Warsan Shire, song collaborations with songwriters such as Kendrick Lamar, and visual aesthetics drawn from the film,
Daughters of the Dust, directed by Julie Dash. The visual album also has appearances from various black female
actresses such as Quvenzhané Wallis, Zendaya, and Amandla Stenberg. Additionally, Lemonade features black mothers
of victims of police brutality. Throughout United States history black women have been poorly represented in the
media. Depicted as a matriarch, jezebel or a welfare queen, the common image of a black woman as hypersexual or
overwhelmingly controlling has perpetuated false stereotypes of black womanhood. Wrapped in alluring poetry and
music, the mise-en-scene in the visual album provides viewers with an alternative representation to the media’s negative
portrayal of black women as submissive, insubordinate or aggressive. Beyoncé also uses Lemonade as a form of
recognition, commemoration and celebration of the culture and history of Black people in the Deep South and in the
United States as a whole.

Throughout the film, she assumes different identities, celebrating the diversity of black women. She’s a stage diva, a
Southern Belle, an angry street gal, a vulnerable wife in bed, a dandy, a siren, a Voodoo High Priestess, a Victorian
Gothic, and the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, wearing a golden cone bra — a nod, of course, to Madonna’s iconic
“Blonde Ambition” tour.

Overall STYLE: the film is a blazing blend of black and white, oversaturated colors, slow motion and time-lapse —
often in the same scene. Futuristic underwater scenes mix with Southern Gothic, Louisiana voodoo, African tribal,
Christian deluge and baptism symbols, home videos, and German expressionism. Take the opening sequence, which
establishes the theme of disturbance and grief with a succession of eerie images from different times and places: We
start with a faceless modern-day Beyoncé in a fur coat leaning on a car. Cut to an expressionistic black-and-white image
of a wooden wall with a chain in an extreme frog’s perspective, which looks like a kind of medieval torture instrument
from Joan of Arc, the greatest female martyr in (film) history.

Opening Montage:
Sound: “Pray you Catch Me”
In the opening sequence of the visual album, Beyoncé hides inside a black hoodie with her back to the camera, moving
through a field of tall grass with a large withered brick castle in the distance. The shots in the opening sequence
indicate that she will be navigating us through an intimate and personal time in her life. As Beyoncé shies away from
the camera in the opening sequence, Lemonade demonstrates the visual album’s ability to portray the full complexity
of black women as happy, sad, sexy, strong, loving, etc..
The opening sequence establishes the theme of disturbance and grief with a succession of eerie images from different
times and places: We start with a faceless modern-day Beyoncé in a fur coat leaning on a car. Cut to an expressionistic
black-and-white image of a wooden wall with a chain in an extreme frog’s perspective, which looks like a kind of
medieval torture instrument from Joan of Arc, the greatest female martyr in (film) history. Notice the shifting from
color to black and white images in this opening.

Cut to Fort Macomb, an abandoned 19th-century brick fort in New Orleans that also served as the battleground for
True Detective‘s season 1 finale. The foreground is filled by tall grass and sugar canes blowing in the wind, which we get
a close up of in the next shot, setting up a sensual depiction of the rural South — a similar opening as the True Blood
title sequence, another blend of Southern traditions, religion, the occult and sex. The next shot shows a kneeling
Beyoncé in front of a red curtain, where she starts singing: a dramatic image setting her up as a tragic woman of the
theater — or it could be a reference to Nicole Kidman’s fallen prostitute, Satine, in Baz Luhrman’s melodramatic 2001
musical Moulin Rouge!, which uses the red carpet as a central theme.

Hoodie: allusion to Trayvon Martin/black lives matter movement; anti-elaborate costume

for performance, dare we say “real”; AND YET this is an illusio as this is a ultimately
curated, deeply produced moment; casual; very natural, minimal makeup; black–signifies
mourning
Location: stage, field, Fort Macomb (Louisiana)—Confederate troops occupied it at the beginning of the
Civil War but abandoned the post when the Union captured New Orleans in April 1862. A month later, Union Lt.
Col. O. W. Lull took command of the fort, and wrote a letter to Gen. Benjamin Butler that included a list of supplies
and a hand-drawn map. The fort’s tenants during the Civil War included the First Louisiana Native Guard, among the
Union Army’s first all-black units.

Braids/fur coat/SUV: perhaps recognizable symbols of Beyonce’s public performance and fame, although here the
posture indicates struggle, emotional pain

Stage: highlights notions of performance/here the clash of the public and the personal, although her pose and clothing
are contrary to performance and indicate something more personal and intimate

Tone: loneliness and grief?

INTUITION (title card)

Intuition transcript: I tried to make a home out of you, but doors lead to trap doors, a stairway leads to nothing.
Unknown women wander the hallways at night. Where do you go when you go quiet?

You remind me of my father, a magician ... able to exist in two places at once. In the tradition of men in my blood, you
come home at 3 a.m. and lie to me. What are you hiding?
The past and the future merge to meet us here. What luck. What a f*cking curse.
Opening montage and “Pray you catch me” continues: shots of spanish Moss, women in white dresses, Beyonce on the
stage.

4:20 Culmination of “Pray you Catch Me” appears to be a suicide. Beyonce on building ledge lets herself fall toward
street below. She falls, tumbling toward the street.

4:30- 6:01 visuals: she falls into water before she hits the street. Sinks deeper, bubbles. Unzips the hoodie. Suddenly
she is in a bedroom full of water, sheds her black dress and hoodie. Watches herself in bed, asleep (all under water).
Contorts. Screams. Prays. Twists in a red blanket. Swims out of the bedroom.
Transcript: I tried to change.
DENIAL title Card
Transcript: Closed my mouth more, tried to be softer, prettier, less awake. Fasted for 60 days, wore white, abstained
from mirrors, abstained from sex, slowly did not speak another word. In that time, my hair, I grew past my ankles. I
slept on a mat on the floor. I swallowed a sword. I levitated. Went to the basement, confessed my sins, and was baptized
in a river. I got on my knees and said 'amen' and said 'I mean.'
I whipped my own back and asked for dominion at your feet. I threw myself into a volcano. I drank the blood and
drank the wine. I sat alone and begged and bent at the waist for God. I crossed myself and thought I saw the devil. I
grew thickened skin on my feet, I bathed in bleach, and plugged my menses with pages from the holy book, but still
inside me, coiled deep, was the need to know ... Are you cheating on me?
Cheating? Are you cheating on me?

6:02- 10:22 music: “Hold Up”

visuals: Scene opens with facade of a grand building—big wooden doors, concrete steps, corinthian Ionic Columns.
Doors open with a flood of water and Beyonce in a Golden dress. Sound of gushing water. Music starts. Closeu of
barefeet walking down the stars. Beyonce striding joyfully down the street. A woman hands her a brick. Smashes car
windows. Women watching are amused. Smashes fire hydrant, releases a great fountain. Children dance and play.
Beyonce sings directly to the camera. Continues with smashing care windows. Sweet mugs for a security camera and
then smashes. Lots of glamorous closeups. Smashes beauty supply window? More car smashing. Fire. Smiles. Looks
directly and camera and angrily seems to swing at the camera, then drives away in a monster truck.
A FANTASY of anger release.

10:17- 10:23- Visual: New Orleans neighborhood shot

ANGER title Card
10:24 Visual: marching band (drum majors) xylophone (is this a music box?) , then drums join in
10:31 visual: cheer/dance squad (all black girls)
Transcript: If it's what you truly want ... I can wear her skin over mine.
10:46 Visual shifts: to black and white framed shot of dancers in a parking garage, played backwards, water drips
upwards.
Transcript: Her hair over mine. Her hands as gloves.
10:46 Visual shifts: shot of dimly lit starwell
Transcript: Her teeth as confetti.
11:03 Visual shifts: tighter shot of women dancing. Tied together by long sleeves of identical white dresses.
Transcript: Her scalp, a cap. Her sternum, my bedazzled cane.
11:15 Visual shifts: closeup of stairwell. Then a “vertigo shot”, camera traveling looking down the stairs into the
darkness. Finally focuses on a totally dark doorway/passage way.
Transcript: We can pose for a photograph, all three of us. Immortalized ... you and your perfect girl.
NOTES: tone of visuals and music, dark, moody, a very restrained anger? The narration of Beyonce reveals
notions of the effect of misogyny—the promise of the female self to be someone else, to satisfy the male gaze,
male expectation, a rather morbid promise, expressing a sort of impossibility, wearing someone else’s skin, the
notion of “your perfect girl” –the your referring doubly to infidelity but also to the male, other, beloved’s
notion of perfection. This is not empowering self-definition here.
Visuals: Then jumpcut to low angle shot of the women in a semi-circle. Jumpcut to low angle shot of a glowing light
fixture in the darkness.
Transcript: I don't know when love became elusive.
11:48 Visuals: Jumpcut to profile closeup of Beyonce, fur, braids, bent head, leaning on SUV.
Transcript: What I know is, no one I know has it. Zoom in to closer shot. Jump shot to drummer. Jump cut to shot of
two women dancing in silouette, darkness in foreground, glow in the background. Jumpcut to drummer drumming.
Sound of drum begins. Jumpcut to woman reclining atop a car.
My father's arms around my mother's neck, fruit too ripe to eat. I think of lovers as trees ... growing to and from one
another. Searching for the same light.
12:16 Visual: close up low angle of Beyonce in parking garage in front of SUV. Camera zooms out as Beyonce looks
into the camera. Two women flank Beyonce, one sitting, one standing.
Why can't you see me? Why can't you see me? Why can't you see me? Everyone else can.
NOTES: is this about the needing of the gaze of the other, the gaze of the male beloved, to see someone is to
understand them? To not see them is to not acknowledge them/understand who they are/accept them/value
them. “Everyone else can” — others acknowledge/accept and value who she is
Visuals: water dripping from ceiling, fire ignites in parking garage, women standing in dark corridor, lit by headlight?
Spot light?
12:40: “Don’t Hurt Yourself” begins.
Dancing, low angles of Beyonce singing.
Lyrics reference Malcolm X. lyrics “Call me Malcolm X”
13:36 Voiceover of Malcolm X speech: “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most
unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”
NOTE: This speech goes on to ask . . . . “Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to
hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who
taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your
own kind?” (HIS MESSAGE HERE IS TO LOVE YOURSELF, STAND UP FOR YOURSELF,
EMPOWER YOURSELF.)
13:39- 13:52 Visuals: jumpcut to candid footage of what seems to be real black women in New Orleans neighborhood
and music slows to feature Malcolm X
13:53: jumpcuts between Beyonce, in white dress, looks like night vision, a bit demonic? And jump cut to beyonce in
spandex and fur, braids in parking garage, lyrics “Dragon breathing fire” “I am not broken, I am not crying” “lying”
“you don’t love me deep enough”
Lyrics– “too much for you” “let it be” “who the fuck do you think I am” seems to a rejection of the anger directed at
self, now turns anger outward. Calling for HIS accountability
Lots of bouncing breasts and throwing of hair

15:18 Black and white letters – “GOD IS GOD AND I AM NOT” lyrics “God herself”
Lyrics “final warning, if you try this shit again, you gon lose your wife” visuals: throws ring at camera

Transition: more of what sounds like music box music

16:14 Title card: APATHY with visual of reflected light of a disco ball, interior ceiling of a bus?
Jumpcut to womens feet in sneakers and various styled shoes
Jumpcut to women on bench on bus, traditional yoruban body art, and wide range of braided and natural hair styles,
leaning/dancing in unison, Beyonce sitting in thought, head to side.
Laolu Senbanjo, the New York City-based artist behind the body art—what he he calls the "Sacred Art of the
Ori” (essence) he says “the paint is a white ink with very spiritual meaning in Yoruba culture. It's something
we often use as a dedication to worship of orishas, the gods in Yoruba religion. The vision Beyoncé had was
very intense and deep -- connecting with the Yoruba culture and all. You know, the Yoruba religion and culture
has traveled all over the world after the slave trade, and it resonates so much with African people from the
diaspora all over the world.”

From an interview with Senbanjo: “Many people have likened Beyoncé to Oshun, the Yoruba orisha of
womanhood. As someone with Yoruba heritage, how do you think she embodies Oshun?Oshun is supposed to
be very beautiful, and I mean just in the sense of beauty alone you can already see that in Beyoncé. She is also
very in touch with herself and very much about spirituality, giving, sensuality and power -- all characteristics of
Oshun.And there are very different sides of Oshun, like her anger, which you Beyoncé channel in parts of the
video like the part when she bursts open the door in her yellow dress and floodwaters come out.”

Transcript: So what are you gonna say at my funeral, now that you've killed me? Here lies the body of the love of my
life, whose heart I broke without a gun to my head. Here lies the mother of my children, both living and dead. Rest in
peace, my true love, who I took for granted. Most bomb p*ssy who, because of me, sleep evaded. Her god listening. Her
heaven will be a love without betrayal. Ashes to ashes, dust to side chicks.
17:05 Lousiana landscape low angle show, black and white, trees and spanish moss, moody sunset sky, jumpcut to
orange trees, jumpcut to southern house ample Porch step, jumpcut to porch with white wicker chairs
17:17 Music: “Sorry” begins
17:22 interior of southern mansion, lingerie clad black women,
17:24 jumpcut to chandelier and Serena Williams descending stairs, jumpcuts to Serena challenging camera with
powerful gaze, striding confidently down hallway to Beyonce seated in elaborate throne like chair at end of long
hallway. Jumpcuts to Serena and women dancing in hallway, to women dancing on bus, unified danceway, fits lyrics
well, “boy bye” “middle fingers up, I aint thinking about you” jumpcut to dancing outside of but. This is about
solidarity of women, a sort of fun, energetic, powerful, confident matriarchy, women friendship
19:36 jumpcut to empty black and white upper lit, spot lighted shot of Beyonce alone as a sort of Nefertiti or
Cleopatra, queen, golden pointy breasted lingerie, golden earrings. Sorry ends.

10:42 jumpcut to low angle shot through the grass of naked women walking slowing (sounds like rushing wind or
water??) then fades to black.

Transcript: She sleeps all day. Dreams of you in both worlds.

20:59 Title card: EMPTINESS with visual of light post, then glare of light fills screen
21:10 jumpcut to pavement, dripping water, red dress, Beyonce’s hair, fire, Beyonce seated on pavement surrounded by
fire, golden headdress
Transcript: Tills the blood, in and out of uterus. Wakes up smelling of zinc, grief sedated by orgasm, orgasm
heightened by grief. God was in the room when the man said to the woman, "I love you so much. Wrap your legs
around me. Pull me in, pull me in, pull me in." Sometimes when he'd have her nipple in his mouth, she'd whisper,
"Oh, my God." That, too, is a form of worship.
Her hips grind, pestle and mortar, cinnamon and cloves. Whenever he pulls out .
22:14 jumpcut to RED lit hallway. Percussions begin.
... loss. Dear moon, we blame you for floods ... for the flush of blood ... for men who are also wolves. We blame for the
night for the dark, for the ghosts.
22:16 long slow dolly shot as music increases, building to crescendo, horns and percussions, moving down long red
hallway toward a lit rectangle (suggestive of birth canal? Given the voiceover reference to a woman’s cycle)
23:37 at crescendo “Six Inch” jumpcut to half lit, red lit close up shot of half of beyonce’s face. Darkness. Lights.
Jumpcut to shot of B in rear view mirror. Back seat of limo. Jumpcut to dolly shot of limo.
23:58 jumpcut to interior scene of house. Red lit. pan to Beyonce middle of room swinging a red light. Lacy dress.
Jumpcut to women sitting on couch in the room. Red spot light reveals more women sitting in room in easy chair
24:15 Transcript: Every fear ... every nightmare ... anyone has ever had.
Jumpcut to exterior scene of southern gothic mansion
24:27 Red lit, claustrophobic scene of B on a cramped stage in Body suit and high heels, old fashioned stage lights,
behind glass – she embodies the role of stripper/exotic dancer. Jumpcuts between b onstage and B in limo
QUICK jumpcut montage–man falling to floor drunk?, silhouette of man, woman standing on a stage, flash of red
24:40Title card LOSS flashes quickly
24:43 shot of end of hallway, fire ignites (looks like it ignites at a wall phone?
24:44 red lit close up shot of B, jumpcut to B in limo looking out at street at night, women on street, prostitution??
B on a bed, gothic lace body suit, mirrored ceiling. B exiting burning hallway wearing gothic lace bodysuit
27”20 final closeup of B in elaborate suit and fire behind her pans out , flanked by four women
“Six Inch” Lyrics: about business woman, “stacking her paper” working all hours, describes a sex worker and evokes
Donna Summer’s 1983 hit “She Works Hard for the Money.” It samples Hayes’s recording of Burt Bacharach and Hal
David’s “Walk on By,” the epic cover that inaugurated Hayes’s 1969 album, Hot Buttered Soul and with it, a revolution
in Southern soul. By sampling the song’s fierce network of ascending strings “6 Inch” harnesses Hayes’s grand
orchestral treatment to a woman’s story. But the song also amplifies the women’s voices within Hayes’s work: less
dramatically but constantly, the track samples Hayes’s three female backup singers singing “walk on.” These singers are
Pat and Diane Lewis, and Rose Williams, a group that Hayes amusingly yet narcissistically named “Hot Buttered &
Soul.” They provided the backing vocals for several of Hayes’s Stax masterpieces, such as “Part-Time Love,” from 1971.
In that song, Hayes longs for a temporary fix during times of abandonment brought on by his lover: Can’t you see I’m
working on it? the women singers ask, repeating the line with increasing urgency throughout the out-chorus. Their
frenetic vocal work allows Hayes to play it cool. As Beyoncé loops his singers, she hints at other black women “behind”
his song: Dionne Warwick, who originally recorded “Walk on By” in 1964, and Carla Thomas, whose hits helped
establish Stax as a viable Southern soul label in the first place, though she would soon be overshadowed by her male
peers.The trick of “6 Inch” is how it tucks the stories of multiple women into the image of a singular figure. The lyrics
first describe a woman who walked in the club and murdered everyone with her fierceness, while the beat reflects her
slow strut. But the tempo picks up in the bridge, where the woman grinds from Monday to Friday, works from Friday
to Sunday. These lyrics might reveal the grind behind one woman’s glamor. But, as the beat subdivides in this section,
so too might the women themselves. Is the “she” who is too smart to crave material things the same “she” who is
stacking her paper? Is the badass diva in 6 inch heels the same person with stars in her eyes who sweats those sleepless
nights? Are these different sides of one woman, or different women?

The song’s ambiguities evoke Nina Simone’s kaleidoscopic classic “Four Women,” in which Simone impersonates four
generations of black women including the sexually exploited “Peaches,” who screams her name to end the song and
perhaps the intergenerational trauma it tracks. Beyoncé too slips on various vocal and visual guises, singing in her lower
register, then bringing a cry to her voice in the bridge and pushing the line she gone slay to make slaying sound like
work. In the video, she plays a stripper onstage at the club, a woman of the night cruising oblivious men in a Lincoln
Continental, and an antebellum horror-movie fire-starter on the plantation. This multiplicity is embodied by the
women in the parlor where she swings that light bulb. Those women later stand with her before the burning
plantation, literalizing and collectivizing the lyric about the woman in “6 Inch” having murdered everyone.

27:47 Shot of New Orleans landscape, birdsong, panning shot of Bayou, as if boat on the water.
28:02 – jumpcut to interior shot inside plantation mansion, shot out window of garden, jumpshot to a grand
bedroom,
28:13 Title card ACCOUNTABILITY with shot from upper story window of woman walking through
Garden and into house then jumpcut to interior

Two little girls come running up the stairs, wearing white dresses
Transcript: You find the black tube inside her beauty case where she keeps your father's old prison letters. You
desperately want to look like her. You look nothing like your mother. You look everything like your mother.
Visual: jump cut to little black girl with blonde hair jumping on the bed. Little girl watching B. Is this Blue watching
B??
Transcript: Film star beauty. How to wear your mother's lipstick. You go to the bathroom to apply your mother's
lipstick. Somewhere no one can find you.
You must wear it like she wears disappointment on her face. Your mother is a woman and women like her cannot be
contained.
29:15 Leah Chase seated in ornate chair.
Leah Chase is a legendary chef, author and TV personality from New Orleans. They call her the Queen of
Creole Cuisine. Her restaurant Dooky Chase was a famous meeting point for activists during the Civil Rights
movement. Her restaurant was also well known for the impressive collection of African American art she
displayed.
29:23 condensation, water droplets on a window. Footage of new orleans neighborhood.
Voiceover: male voice talking about meeting the president, footage of a family, father and children, talking about
having to provide for family, from New Orleans, “I can be whatever I want to be,” driving in the rain.
29:57 jumpcut to panoramic shot of stormy sky and wide open green landscape, sound of thunder, RAIN drops.
Storm begins.
Transcript: Mother dearest, let me inherit the earth. Teach me how to make him beg. Let me make up for the years he
made you wait. Did he bend your reflection? Did he make you forget your own name? Did he convince you he was a
god? Did you get on your knees daily? Do his eyes close like doors? Are you a slave to the back of his head?
Am I talking about your husband or your father?
31:06 jumpcut to new orleans Jazz musicians
Lyrics “Daddy Lessons”
Candid footage of men, then jumpcut to silhouetted Dancing B, shot in a stone tunnel seems to be shot at fort
macomb, back lit. next to guitar player in an easy chair.
Footage of families, women, father figures, truck following along behind two people on horseback, father and
daughter, then B and another woman on horseback through countryside
32:54 Jumpcuts between B singing with guitar player and candid shots of citizens of new orleans
33:17 family film footage of B as a little girl and her Dad sitting talking on a couch (shot of Blue and grandfather???)
Shots of little girls, father figures
33:54 new orleans funeral scenes
34:43 jump cut as “Daddy Lessons” ends back to parking structure.
34:58 shift to stadium. Women standing in long antebellum dresses spread out. Beyonce laying on turf. Jumpcut to
night vision B in white dress in parking lot.
35:22 title card REFORMATION with jumpcut to shot of woman on plantation porch
Transcript: He bathes me until I forget their names and faces. I ask him to look me in the eye when I come home. Why
do you deny yourself heaven? Why do you consider yourself undeserving? Why are you afraid of love? You think it's
not possible for someone like you. But you are the love of my life. You are the love of my life. You are the love of my life.
35 :40 trees, landscape, B in Bed, B in stadium
36:04 jumpcut to shot of line women in gauzy white dresses wading shin deep in the water led by B. Twilight. Seems
like a baptismal ritual of sorts. ATMOSPHERIC instrumental into to “LOVE DROUGHT.” Soft tone of song fits
visuals,
36:31Close up high angle shot of B with water and reflection of sunset framing her face
Women in white dresses– allusion to “Daughters of the Dust”
 1991, Julie Dash’s sumptuous film Daughters of the Dust broke ground as the first movie directed by a black
woman to get a wide theatrical release. Since then, the gorgeous tone poem about a Gullah family in 1902 has
continued to gather accolades. It was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004.
About matriarchy, about empowerment of women and finding identity on their own terms. Brought attention
to this under celebrated film
Some striking images that figure symbolically—Beyonce leaning back pulled by rope tied to her weather. Beyonce in
tipped chair on top of table, women on tipped chairs, row of women in triumphant hands raised pose at the water,
adorned with gold paint on shoulders and arms, flowers
37:50 jumpcut to closeup of Beyonce with yoruba body paint around eyes, camera spins 360 upside down,
percussions , jumpcut to low angle shot of Beyonce, surrounded by outstretched hands of other women
Jumpcut to short scene, very quiet, bird song, shot of B’s dress skirt billowing in wind
38:30 title card FORGIVENESS with jumpcut to shot of Lake Ponchatrain
Transcript: Baptize me ... [upside shot of two nake women and their shadows, from behind, sitting on the sandy shore]
now that reconciliation is possible. If we're gonna heal, let it be glorious. 1,000 girls raise their arms. Do you remember
being born? Are you thankful for the hips that cracked? The deep velvet of your mother and her mother and her
mother? There is a curse that will be broken.
Montage of shots, womens toes and skirt of tulle at water’s edge, shot of women in a line in white dresses with arms
raised shin deep in the lake, B laying at water’s edge on sad, veiled in tulle, sound of lapping water and birdsong,
39:09 jumpcut to interior scene, two chairs and fire in fireplace
Close up of women’s feet walking on tile, interior, soft lit (in this a symbol of return
39:24 SYMBOL–close up shot of of a repaired ceramic bowl
Kintsugi ("golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi ("golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken
pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or
platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique.
“SandCastles” begins
Framed family portraits
Nina Simonce “Silk and Soul” Album
Beyonce alone sitting on floor playing on keyboard and singing, soft lit
Candle burning
Dead flowers in a vase, fragility, beauty preserved despite the withering
Art, paint and crayons of a child
Back to close of Beyonce singing
Close up of old watch
41:20 Beyonce and Jay in Bed giggling, his hand caresses her face, she kisses his hand, made to feel like a real intimate
moment
Silhouetted shot of the two of them foreheads touching, backlit, warm, montage of intimate face to face shots,
42:45 Transition: visual of moss covered trees, black and white, quiet
42:48 title card RESURRECTION
Women in antebellum dresses, natural hard, Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, etc, on what seems to be an old plantation

Transcript: [sounds like a woman preacher, not B] Something is missing. So many young women, they tell you, "I want
me a hu — see, all them make me feel better than you." So how we supposed to lead our children to the future? What
do we do? How do we lead them? Love. L-O-V-E, love. Mm-mmm-mmm. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I just love the
Lord, I'm sorry, brother. I love the Lord. That's all I got.
When your back gets against the wall and your wall against your back, who you call? Hey! Who you call? Who you
call? You gotta call Him. You gotta call Jesus. You gotta call Him. You gotta call Him 'cause you ain't got another hope.

Transcript: (B)You are terrifying ... and strange and beautiful.

“Forward” sung by Blake James like a lullaby

Close up shots of mothers of the movement holding photographs of their sons: Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who
was shot dead by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012. Zimmerman was later acquitted of
second-degree murder and of manslaughter. Trayvon's mum, Sybrina Fulton, with a portrait of her beloved son.
Gwendolyn Carr and the young man in that picture is her son Eric Garner. Garner you will remember was killed in
2014 by a police officer who put him in a chokehold. Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, who was shot
dead in 2014 but a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting of the unarmed 18-year-old brought racial
tensions to the fore in Ferguson where protests and riots lasted a few weeks.

45:12 Beyoncé's decision to feature a young, female Mardi Gras Indian in Lemonade serves several purposes. It's a
shout-out to her family's Louisiana heritage and another example of her centering black women throughout the video.
the Mardi Gras Indian is holding an old black-and-white photo of her own. Her expression during both
appearances is solemn, and we know that she has her own story that we only get a glimpse of. Like so much of
Lemonade, the Mardi Gras Indian's appearance is a nod to inheritances, both political and personal, of
womanhood and heritage and history and race. Carrying out a ritual, a blessing,
Transcript: Magic.

46:05 Symbol: a baby, lit candle

Jumpcut to fort macomb, beyonce entering building, jumpcut to
46:27 title card HOPE
women entering building, going to cook
Shot of women in a kitchen, cooking

Transcript: The nail technician pushed my cuticles back ... turns my hand over, stretches the skin on my palm and says,
"I see your daughters and their daughters." That night in a dream, the first girl emerges from a slit in my stomach. The
scar heals into a smile. The man I love pulls the stitches out with his fingernails. We leave black sutures curling on the
side of the bath.
I wake as the second girl crawls headfirst up my throat, a flower blossoming out of the hole in my face.
Atmospheric montage, women dressed in ritual garb, group of women in dresses on stage, B in dress, storm landscape,
bricks of some sort of sub altern room, candles, camera pans into the light, percussion builds.
Women on benches, antebellum dresses, as if seated for some sort of show
47:35 “Freedom” with K. Lamar – B singing acapella onstage for the women
48:07 At chorus: musical accompaniment bursts in
48:29 Jumpcut to Ballerina on stage instead of beyonce
Michaela DePrince. The Sierra Leonean-American dancer is known for her role in the documentary 'First
Position' as well as for the memoir she wrote with her adoptive mother, 'Taking Flight: From War Orphan to
Star Ballerina'. She is currently the only dancer of African origin in the Dutch National Ballet.
Jumpcut to famous black women in white dresses
Interior shots
A SEAT AT THE TABLE all black women
Shot of winnie harlow
Back to dancer
Back to B singing
Women in trees, regal, celebration of black female beauty and accomplishment
50:19 title card REDEMPTION a shot from interior darkness out porch door
Transcript: Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half a lemon. Pour
the water from one jug then into the other several times. Strain through a clean napkin.
Grandmother, the alchemist, you spun gold out of this hard life, conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found
healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kit. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You
passed these instructions down to your daughter who then passed it down to her daughter.
(voice recording of Beyonce’s Grandmother) I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull
myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade.
My grandma said "Nothing real can be threatened." True love brought salvation back into me. With every tear came
redemption and my torturers became my remedy. So we're gonna heal. We're gonna start again. You've brought the
orchestra, synchronized swimmers.
You're the magician. Pull me back together again, the way you cut me in half. Make the woman in doubt disappear.
Pull the sorrow from between my legs like silk. Knot after knot after knot. The audience applauds ... but we can't hear
them.

Women gathering, little girls running, all at the table, porch chairs
Beyonce porch chair, quiet contemplative
Beyonce and little girls fixing each other’s hard, women talking, girls running,

Jay’s grandma family footage, Blue, birthday speech

Transition – moss

Beyonce on water edge

Woman dancing
Women pulling rope
52:27 close up of Beyonce, closed eyes, glare of sun, back lit, serene, black and white

52:30 film shifts to color, women picking in garden (twins) Ibeyi is a French (with Cuban, Venezuelan and Tunisian
origins) musical duo consisting of twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz. The duo sings in English, French,
Spanish and Yoruba, a Nigerian language spoken in West Africa by their ancestors before being taken to Cuba as slaves
in the 1700s. Women are dressed in more modern dresses, no more antebellum
53:01 famous Porch steps shot with beyonce at the center
Trees and lake
Screen goes black, transcript voice ends
53:21 Jumpshot to sky/clouds/flying birds “All Night” begins
Fort macomb
Beyonce singing in african print dress,
Candid film of community
B and Jay matching tattoos
Other shots of real couples kissing
B and Jay
A couple of gay couples
B walking in field and singing
B’s mom and day
B and J wedding footage
Personal footage–pregs, Blue , family celebrations
Jay and Blue playing in stadium
Title card “Lemonade”
“Formation” begins
Shots of New Orleans
Preacher
Shots of post Hurricane Katrina
Dancing in body suit
Blue and other little girls
Black dress and balck hand
wig/beauty store
Gucci body suits
Braids
Ladies in antebellum dresses and fans
Denim outfits dancing in parking lot
Mardi Gras indian
Parade
B On top of police car
Crawfish
Drum majors
Mardi gras floats
Little boy dancing in hoodie in front of police line
Church
Cops put hands up
Police car sinks in flood waters with b on it

Formation isn't just a bop, it’s also an important part of the Black Lives Matter movement. The song was released one
day after what would have been Trayvon Martin’s 21st birthday, and Sandra Bland’s 29th birthday.

It was also performed at the Super Bowl with exclusively black back-up dancers donning Black Panther-esque outfits.
The track is a dedication to Beyoncé’s past and history. Throughout the song she talks about how despite her
incredible success she still celebrates her humble beginnings and the place where she grew up. “My daddy Alabama /
Momma Louisiana / You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bama!” This song shows her confident
approach to feminism as well as her personal homage