many voices, all singing in a chorus in a way that I've never witnessed in my life. As a creator, it's completely changed how I look at my art, how I look at Blackness in general, and how we communicate with each other globally." Subversion of stereotypes The film addresses and subverts stereotypical depictions of Africans and African Americans. Powerhouse Museum senior curator Roger Leong described how "tropes of African identity – the wild animal prints, the ultra, almost Josephine Baker images of the showgirl ... she draws on all these archetypes of black glamour and uses them as statements about black pride". Costume designer Zerina Akers put the actors in designer animal print costumes, explaining how she "wanted to turn that [stereotype of Africans' primitive nature] on its head and raise it up to make it feel really high fashion". Janell Hobson of Ms. stated that the "Mood 4 Eva" video is a satirical depiction of black regality and an inversion of classic film tropes, with the presence of white male servants acting as a reversal of the roles in films such as Gone with the Wind and The Help, while Melanie McFarland for Salon wrote that a Busby Berkeley-inspired sequence in the video with black synchronized swimmers highlights how black people were excluded from Hollywood's Golden Age. Natty Bakhita Kasambala of gal-dem wrote that Beyoncé filming scenes in settings such as a country house and renaissance supper table aims to "fill historically White Spaces with an unfiltered, unapologetic Blackness", an act which she calls "an extreme disturbance of the norm in order to shake the rigid structures loose altogether". Black masculinity, femininity and community Co-director Kwasi Fordjour explained how throughout their lives, black men often face obstacles where they need to "decide how we want to navigate this world, the type of man we want to be". Black Is King addresses this issue by presenting a black masculinity centered on leadership, community and the honoring of ancestors. Fordjour commented how a quote from James Earl Jones in the film, which reads "As king, I was most proud of one thing, having you as my son", was intended to represent the voice of God telling black men in their plight: "You're going to be OK. You are my son. You are going to make this. We are going to be alright." Fordjour added: "As men, I feel like sometimes