Written by: Oro Del Mack

Photo Credit: Ebrahim Hajee

Music channels (TV, YouTube, Vevo, Vimeo, and the like) and music review sites are flooded with videos these days. In many ways, a video premiere has become the equivalent of what publishing a single used to be, before things went all digital and out of control.

Unfortunately, this over-production had led to a lot of derivative content. And, like most precious things in life, originality doesn’t seem to come in bulk. So, when we receive something that blows our minds, we literally get up from our desks and dance around the office. Just for a minute though. We don’t have that much time to be dancing the day away.

Which brings us to the new Brandy Butler and The Brokenhearted art-movie short which the collective, helmed by Swiss singer-songwriter Brandy Butler, shot in South Africa. What’s the best way to describe it? Not your typical video, maybe?  More of a wild, artistic, visual re-imagining of two of Brandy’s most powerful songs, “Howling” and “Gentle Beating Heart.”

The video is stunning from the first minute until the credits start rolling at the end.  It’s everything that you always wanted from a video, but maybe didn’t realize it. First of all, there are beautiful bodies on display, set in beautiful locations, but displayed with a sense of appreciation and dignity. The locations are as varied as the body types on screen – and they all look so alluring.

Whoever did the styling for this should also be applauded. The choice of clothes is sort of like the cinematography: both minimal and well-balanced. And maybe that’s the key ingredient here – the one that makes this video such a powerful piece: the ability to know what to show and what to imply, so that it all blossoms in the engaged mind of the viewer.

And what about the action? It’s abstract. It falls somewhere between modern dance, yoga and, performance art. In a sense, it’s something that could be called textural and definitely impressionistic. There’s a strong emotion that emanates from the omnipresent minimalism. But since talking about movies is a bit like dancing about architecture, maybe it’s just best to press play and turn the volume up.

The video was directed by the very talented Nicole Pfister and the cinematography was handled by the sharp-eyed Ebrahim Hajee. The wonderful talent featured on screen includes some of South Africa’s finest: Seeflex The Artist, Shami Shamrock, Lucy Mbiola, Rox Kim Lo, and Rachid Poati, along with Brandy Butler herself.

Last, but not least, Brandy Butler recently released her debut album, The Inventory of Goodbye, which is like a poignant and passionate break-up tape that will make you laugh and cry and love life all the more.

Find out more about Brandy Butler

http://www.brandybutlermusic.com/