Joseph Kahn, the director of Taylor Swift's
"Wildest Dreams" music video, is defending the clip amid claims that
the video glamorizes African colonialism.
The
25-year-old pop star, whose video has been viewed nearly 16 million times on
Vevo since its release Sunday, has come under fire as many outlets have pointed
out that the clip mainly features wild animals and
white actors.
"Taylor
Swift is dressed as a colonial-era woman on African soil. With just a few
exceptions, the cast in the video—the actors playing her boyfriend and a movie
director and his staff—all appear to be white," an NPR article titled "Taylor
Swift Is Dreaming Of a Very White Africa" reads. "We are shocked to
think that in 2015, Taylor Swift, her record label and her video production
group would think it was OK to film a video that presents a glamorous version
of the white colonial fantasy of Africa."
In
response to the criticism, Kahn has issued a lengthy statement in defense of
the video, noting that it was edited by an African-American man and produced by
an African-American woman.
"'Wildest Dreams' is a song about a relationship
that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love
affair on location away from their normal lives," Kahn said in a
statement. "This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the
set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950."
"Wildest Dreams," which was shot in Africa and
features Swift alongside hunky actor Scott Eastwood, is meant to
evoke old Hollywood glamour and a Notebook-esque
love story.
He adds that the video
has "no political agenda" and argues that it has been "singled
out."
"There
have been many music videos depicting Africa. These videos have traditionally
not been lessons in African history," he said before concluding,
"Let's not forget, Taylor has chosen to donate all of her proceeds from
this video to the African Parks Foundation to preserve the endangered
animals of the continent and support the economies of local African
people."
While
Swift has yet to comment on her director's remarks, Kahn furthered his point on
Twitter.
I absolutely love that Taylor donated all her video
proceeds to African parks Foundation. She's lost a lot of money doing that.
Good soul.
Fyi I say we shot it in "Africa" because I shot
it on more than one country. Botswanna and South Africa.
I work with the most famous people in the world...and I
would never want to be famous. People take shots at you 24/7. It's nuts.
People have culture war fatigue. Everyone is angry at
everything all the time. We're just one long Delete It Fat.
Likewise, the video's editor Chancler Haynes replied to one fan who
asked if he was upset about the lack of African-American actors.
@ChanclerVHaynes
are you offended that there wasn't any Africans in the mv?
@BenDadfleck No, people are being stupid.
We made a story about love. Not everything is about race homie.
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