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Dirty Computer
I chose an android because the android to me represents ‘the other’ in our society,” she said in 2010. “I can connect to the other, because it has so many parallels to my own life – just by being a female, African-American artist in today’s music industry. … Whether you’re called weird or different, all those things we do to make people uncomfortable with themselves, I’ve always tried to break out of those boundaries.”
In her dazzling new short film Dirty Computer, tied to her forthcoming album of the same name, Monáe makes explicit how those boundaries still try to hold her down. She’s no longer an android, though — she’s a human being ready to be seen for exactly who she is. The 46-minute film is visually arresting and filled with sterling electro-pop from the upcoming record, but its dense thematic nods to sci-fi landmarks aren’t meant simply as fun spot-the-reference Easter eggs. With the revelation that Monáe has come out as pansexual in her new Rolling Stone interview — “Being a queer black woman in America,” she tells writer Brittany Spanos, “someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.” — it’s impossible not to view Dirty Computer as the artist’s emotional, feminist updating of the dystopian concerns that have always swirled through science fiction. But if you’re not as conversant in sci-fi tropes as Monáe is, fear not: We’re here to unpack the film’s ideas and imagery, which only underline their potency.
Views: 764
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance, Science Fiction
Director: Chuck Lightning
Actors: Dyson Posey, Janelle Monáe, Jayson Aaron, Jonah Lee, Michelle Hart, Oliver Morton, Tessa Thompson
Country: USA
