Today's female filmmaker is a modern director whose trajectory to film is glamourous. Let's talk about Melina Matsoukas and her musical touch on nudity from being a prominent music video director to directing one of the hottest movies released in 2019. Are you unfamiliar with Melina? Then strap in, learn something, and get turned on!
Melina Matsoukas grew up in the Bronx and is of mixed Greek, Jewish, Jamaican and Cuban heritage. She grew up in a city housing development, but she has since climbed to the top! She went to the very prestigious New York University to study film and then did her graduate work at the AFI Conservatory to earn her MFA in cinematography. Her focus? Music videos. She even did her thesis on music videos which would come in handy in a big way. She began working with different musical artists in 2006, racking up a resume of impressive music videos.
Matsoukas quickly developed a style that is filled with bright colors, crisp black-and-white, spotlights, and retro looks with her models. She has said that she thinks a good video has the right visuals along with a good story that should elicit a reaction from the viewer. You're probably wondering where you can see some of these music videos. Have you ever heard of Ludacris? Jennifer Lopez? Robin Thicke? Katy Perry? BEYONCE? She has directed music videos for all of them with her most famous work being for Beyonce. Melina is the one who directed the groundbreaking music video for "Formation" which showed a huge pivot in Beyonce's career and became the teaser for "Lemonade". Melina was the one behind that!
Melina transitioned into television by directing several episodes of the HBO series Insecure in the first two seasons. She used some of her signature moves such as utilizing smooth spotlights for an episode called "Broken as F**k" in which Rayven Mervin strips topless. This got her noticed by the industry and lead to her directing some episodes of Master of None which allowed her to work with Lena Waithe. Her work on both of those shows makes a lot of sense. The shows are each highly stylized in their own ways. Insecure was immediately notable for revolutionizing lighting techniques for Black actors. Master of None relied on music and cinematography to tell really simple stories. Both series are perfect fits for someone like Melina who has made a career out of a strong aesthetic style.
Shortly after that introduction, she wound up directing the Lena Waithe script for her very first feature film Queen Slim starring Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya as lovers on the run from the law. This film gave us a beautiful car sex scene in which Melina rhythmically shows Jodie's body banging Daniel for almost two minutes. Two things are very clear here: the director is a woman and the director knows music. The timing of this sex scene is so musical, even down to Jodie's humping and moaning. This is also one of the few sex scenes that had me sure it was directed by a woman. Ordinarily, I don't think there is much of a difference, but the way that the camera spent equal time on both actors and the way she lovingly focuses on their bodies and keeps cross-fading to show more is done with a lot of care. There is a lot of tenderness and passion that you really feel when watching this sensual scene.
This was the only film that Melina has directed and because of Covid, she has not released anything else. She is a producer for the upcoming series Y the Last Man, but it's unclear what else Melina plans on working on. I really hope she directs more films - and more nude scenes - because she clearly has a gift. Whether she is directing hot and playful music videos or breasts-out nude scenes with hot Black women, Melina is really good at what she does. You've likely already seen the Queen Slim scene, so enjoy some of Melina's lesser-known collaborations with Rihanna:
