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Why Are Two Filmmakers Throwing Shade At Beyoncé's 'Formation' Video?

They accused her of plagiarism.

Beyoncé broke the internet yesterday with her new track "Formation" and a fire music video to accompany it, but not everyone was happy about what they saw. The artful clip, directed by Melina Matsoukas, featured scenes from a 2012 New Orleans documentary That B.E.A.T that chronicles sissy bounce culture in hip-hop.
Director Abteen Bagheri and producer Chris Black took to twitter to voice their feelings about the borrowed footage, claiming their work was used without permission and that they were not given proper credit.

The Twitter insults didn't stop there, with Bagheri and Black using all the power of 140 characters to go in on Bey, Matsoukas and the message of "Formation."
Of course, Team Bey was ready with a response, telling Entertainment Weekly that, in fact, they did get permission to use the footage and it was handed over to them by the production company itself. “The documentary footage was used with permission and licensed from the owner of the footage. They were given proper compensation. The footage was provided to us by the filmmaker’s production company. The filmmaker is listed in the credits for additional photography direction. We are thankful that they granted us permission.”

Black later admitted that he and Bagheri are not the sole rights holders to the footage, so yeah, mystery solved. Meanwhile, Matsoukas responded to the controversy on her own timeline:

The bottom line is, Bagheri and Black made a beautiful documentary that many, many more people will likely see thanks to Beyoncé. New Orleans and #BlackLivesMatter ultimately win. Hopefully all parties involved will see the positive in that. Watch That B.E.A.T. in it's entirety (it's only 9 minutes long) here.
Meanwhile, Bey is likely deep into warm up for her upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance. Get hyped for the show with BET Breaks, below:

(Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

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