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Donald Glover continues to grow and impress as an artist, adding the short film "Guava Island" to his already impressive resume of Grammy-winning music such as Childish Gambino and his award-winning Emmy show "Atlanta."
The 55-minute film is apparently out of nowhere. In early April, Spotify started showing ads for "Guava Island" and created a hidden playlist inspired by the movie. Amazon Prime Video released a short teaser last week showing Glover and Rihanna dancing in radiant beachwear on drums. Then, Glover showed the film exclusively to the audience of Coachella Saturday as part of its program. For 18 hours everyone could watch the movie for free on Amazon Prime Video, but now only subscribers can watch it.
Somewhere between a long televised episode and a feature film, "Guava Island" addresses many themes in tight times. With FX's "Atlanta" paused, the film could be the key for Glover and his team to get one or two Emmy this year.
From Atlanta to Guava Island
Glover hired his frequent collaborator, Hiro Murai, to direct the film. Murai has directed several episodes of "Atlanta", "Barry" from HBO and the Grammy-awarded video for "This Is America" by Childish Gambino. Stephen Glover, writer in "Atlanta" and Donald's younger brother, wrote the screenplay for "Guava Island."
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The production of the film was mainly silence. Rumor has it that Glover and Rihanna were filming a project in Cuba last summer, but the details were more scary. Black actresses Letitia Wright and Nonso Anozie, whom Game of Thrones fans will recognize as Qarth's Xaro Xhoan Daxos (a mouthful), were also attached to the production. A few months later, the secret finally broke and fans were able to admire the latest artistic success of Glover.
Arrive at the island
The colorful film serves as a parable to art and capitalism, but also a visual album for Childish Gambino's recent jams, such as "This Is America", "Feels Like Summer" and "Summertime Magic". A charming animated intro told by Rihanna the origins of guava island. The ancient gods created a magical island far from the sins and the war of humanity; However, violence ends up taking over and industrializing paradise.
Rihanna plays Kofi Novia, a seamstress and inspiration from the music of her boyfriend Deni Maroon (Glover). The beautiful airs of Deni unite the working class of the island, who is struggling to find the dictator Red Cargo (Anozia), but he dreams of fleeing with Kofi for a freer life. Red hears about Deni's plans for a revolution and kills him, leading to a factory outing and public funeral of the martyr of music.
In the same way as Beyoncé's "Lemonade" visual album, "Guava Island" associates its art with a sociopolitical symbolism, especially through color. The colonial capitalist and colonizing forces wear the colors of their leader and the characters of the working class wear blue clothes made from the magic silkworms of the island. The red and blue symbolism surely has political implications. Even Maroon, Deni's family name, refers to his status as an employee of Red, which allows him to operate a radio station broadcasting music to calm his workers. While the other characters are systematically color-coded, Deni and Kofi wear a mix of reds, blues and yellows, caught between social strata and power struggles.
A true artist until the end, Deni disobeys Reding's threats to stop playing music and organizes a festival for island workers. Even in the face of death, he believes that his art will prevail and that his music and death will finally unite the lower class against the sovereign.
Emmy hopes
"The Island of Guava" is too short to be considered an Emmy Award in TV movies, but Amazon will surely push it for an outstanding variety (pre-recorded). Last year, Netflix's special "Dave Chappelle: Equanimity" won the award, but James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke Primetime Specials" dominated the previous two years. Glover's film will face fierce competition this year as "Homecoming", Netflix's documentary on Beyoncé's Coachella performance in 2018, will compete in the same category.
Amazon would submit "Guava Island" for writing, staging and other outstanding awards in the special variety category. If the songs were created specifically for the film, they could also argue for outstanding original lyrics and music.
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