They didn’t know it, but George Mason University students were rubbing shoulders with a man involved in one of the biggest music projects of 2016, Beyoncé’s new visual album simply and rather sweetly called “Lemonade.”
This month, noted photographer and filmmaker Khalik Allah visited the campus for the Mason Visiting Filmmakers Series where he screened his documentary, “Field Niggas.”
During his visit, he hinted to students that he’d worked with Beyoncé, but declined to elaborate, given the secrecy of the project, according to an article published on the Film and Media Studies website.
Weeks later it was revealed he is a cinematographer and second unit director for “Lemonade.”
“His footage, used throughout ‘Lemonade,’ is the grainy street interview footage. He was selected because the film we brought to campus, his first feature, is so remarkable,” said Cynthia Fuchs, director of Film and Media Studies at George Mason.
“I have been in touch with him since Sunday, and he's thrilled, of course,” she added.
Fuchs arranged Allah’s visit to campus and was there for the April 5 “Field Niggas” screening and subsequent discussion, facilitated by Wendi Manuel-Scott, director of African and African American Studies at Mason, and Ann Hornaday, a film critic for the Washington Post.
The next day Allah had lunch with a group of students, many of them members of the Black Student Alliance and Mason’s chapter of Delta Kappa Alpha, a professional cinematic arts fraternity.
The fraternity and the alliance conducted an on-camera interview with Allah that’s posted here.
On April 6, Allah visited a documentary photography class taught by Sue Wrbican, associate director of the School of Art and the director of the photography program at Mason.
“Field Niggas,” filmed almost two years ago in New York City, documents the people Allah encounters on the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem. Many of the subjects of the film are homeless and suffering from drug and alcohol addictions, according to an article on the FAMS website.
The Mason Visiting Filmmakers Series has brought films, filmmakers and directors to Mason’s campus since 1995.
This spring, the series has also featured the documentary “Stage Four: A Love Story” by Mason Film and Video Studies professor Benjamin Steger and “Kandahar Journals” by Louie Palu.