With her Renaissance film, Beyoncé turns her concert into a culture

For this week's wrap panel on Commotion, culture critics Niko Stratis, Rollie Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon and A. Harmony join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé and how much the famously private superstar pulls back the curtain on her record-breaking world tour.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, including the panel's discussion of Dolly Parton's debut rock album and whether Noah Kahan is bringing back "stomp and holler" music, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Harmony, what was the most memorable moment of seeing Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé?

A. Harmony: First of all, Elamin, I want to say this movie makes up for every other movie you made me see this year. I loved it. I would go see it again in a heartbeat. I am a nerd for all things behind the scenes, so I really enjoyed being able to peek behind the curtain and get to see all of the painstaking hard work and attention to detail that went into putting together this elaborate production. It was fantastic.

There were so many favourite moments in the film, but I think my absolute favourite was getting to see Blue Ivy Carter, her daughter. I feel like I'm her honorary auntie…. She's grown up before our eyes. She didn't come to the Toronto show, so we didn't get to see her perform here, but we got to see her performance in the film. We also got to learn a little bit more about her through her own words. We got to see glimpses of her personality and see her interact with her parents. It was really nice to see everybody on the tour rally around her and take her under their wing, and just see the young lady she's becoming.

WATCH | Official trailer for Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé:

Elamin: Every generation gets their own marker of time, and mine is Blue Ivy Carter growing up. Like, she was born yesterday. Beyoncé just had her first kid. The notion that her child is performing with her on tour … is kind of startling to me. Rollie, let's talk about the fact that you went to see Beyoncé in concert this past summer, and then you saw the movie. How does the movie reflect the concert that you saw?

Rollie: I think it really successfully captures the energy of the show…. She puts it really well in the movie: she says it's not a concert, it's a culture. The thing I really enjoyed about it is when you watch the show, it's like this really elaborate magic trick, right? And you're like, how do they do that? And now you watch the film and it really shows all the work that goes behind it. It took four years to produce the whole show. She refers to it as embracing the bones and veins of the machinery.

Elamin: Well, I was going to ask you literally about the machinery. Do we get a lot of information about the robot arms in this movie?

Rollie: No, not as much as I wish there was…. But we do learn that there are actually three full set-ups of the tour that they would use and build ahead of time at every different location. It was amazing. I noticed a lot of stuff that wasn't at the Toronto show. I felt a little disappointed. There's a huge inflatable Beyoncé at one point; we didn't get that.

Elamin: You're like, we got the tank but I really wanted this inflatable Beyoncé business. Where was this in our show? Niko, we know Beyoncé to be this extremely private superstar. She does not do interviews. She didn't walk the red carpet at her own movie…. When we get to this movie, we get these behind the scenes sort of moments. How do you feel she pulls back the curtains?

Niko: I mean, kind of expertly. There is this reference earlier to it being a magic trick, and it does sort of feel like [that]. Magicians famously don't like to show you it's all smoke. You don't ever see the smoke. You don't ever see the mirrors. And she really wants to show that a lot of work goes into this. We talk about Beyoncé a lot as this icon, as a businesswoman, as all these things, and she really pulls back this curtain in a really smart way to say, "Yes, I am all these things. But also, this is a lot of work. This is all the work I put into these things. Here's how the machine works. Here's my hands on it. Here's where I injure myself. Here's where my family and my love of all these people comes in. This is how it's all informed, and this is how it's delivered." It's this really interesting game of show and tell.

Still, Beyoncé is the master of showing you just as much as she wants you to know and to see. We're so used to knowing everything about celebrities…. And it's nice that Blue Ivy gets a bit of agency in this, too. I like this idea of, we actually don't need to know more about her than what we see, right? It's nice to see how she put this together because I think it is such a labour of love. There's so much energy and blood and sweat that goes into this, and it's nice for her to be able to show that.

Elamin: You're right. It's nice for some things to remain a secret, or at least on the terms of the star that actually wants to reveal them.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.